I’ve been world snooker champion a record seven times – now I drink wine before matches and would rather be playing golf

STEPHEN HENDRY has revealed he is used to drinking a glass of WINE before games.

The Scottish legend delighted snooker fans when he returned to the ball in 2020 after eight years in retirement.

3

3

3

But although the seven-time world champion showed the first signs of his old class, he hasn’t won a single game in two years.

Hendry, 54, said: “Ninety-five per cent of the reasons I don’t enjoy it is basically because I played shit and got beaten.”

“The old system recognized my bet ten minutes before the game, but the new system may have just had a glass of wine.”

“But this is a dangerous path. This is the last resort.”

“My relationship with snooker used to be a love-hate relationship, now it is a love-hate relationship.

“Snooker is my life and always has been.

“I still think I’m going to give someone a beating at some point in one of these games.”

“It bothers me to lose to players I should beat. That’s what I struggle with.”

“If this continues, there is no point in continuing.

“They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.

“There will come a time when I just think, ‘This isn’t fun’.”

Hendry dominated snooker at the peak of his powers when he won his world titles in the 1990s.

But he admits he finds it difficult to find the motivation to train these days and would rather be on the golf course.

Hendry said: “The problem is I don’t train. So how can you really expect to go out and do something if you don’t prepare for it?”

“Basically I’m on the golf course eight days a week, so that kind of hinders the preparation.”

“I practiced five or six hours a day, so five or six days a week.

“Now when I have a match, I don’t really train much.”

Hendry remains snooker’s all-time junior world champion, having beaten Jimmy White 18-12 in 1990 when he was just 21 years old.

He admits he feels flat-footed as he goes from those highs to being just another hopeful player playing in unremarkable qualifiers.

The former world No. 1 said: “I always played at the Crucible when it was full, at Wembley Conference Center in front of 3,000 people.”

“I would play in front of 30,000 people in Hong Kong, a full house.”

“And now I’m playing in a leisure center with a swimming pool next to it.

“I mean, how do you manage to prepare for that? That’s the problem.”

“All the qualifiers are taking place in venues that are not particularly inspiring to me.

“They have to be there and there is a purpose for these qualifiers.”

“But when you’ve played the venues I have, you look for a bit of inspiration to move forward.”

Keep up to date with ALL the latest news and transfers on the Scottish Sun football page