Snooker: Hendry's Focus Steers Him Through

Stephen Hendry expressed satisfaction with the "attitude and concentration" that helped him turn 5-1 arrears into an unconvincing 10-7 win over Dave Gilbert, a 500-1 outsider, in the World Championship here in Sheffield yesterday.

"It's easy to have a good attitude when you're flying but you need it when you're up against it as well," he added. "I doubt that I'd have lost here last year [in the first round to Nigel Bond] if my attitude had been the same."

The wisdom of Hendry's decision to change cues only three weeks before the championship has been widely questioned but he is adamant that its feel and performance are much more like the one with which he won his seven world titles. He was forced to abandon that cue when it was broken by airport baggage handlers three years ago.

Encouraged as he may have been, though, by making breaks of 147 and 133 in the second and third frames of his first practice session with the new cue, a top break of 76 and only five other half-centuries in this match emphasised that he was far from bringing that form into the arena. "I could easily have chucked this match at 5-1 down," said the Scot, "so I'm delighted with the way I dug in and won nine of the next 11 frames. I thought that was a tremendous performance."

"A great champion but he didn't play well" was Gilbert's summary. "He gave me plenty of chances." But the world No67 from Tamworth was unhappy with the way he had squandered them. "I'm disgusted with how I played there. I feel terrible. I probably missed more balls than I potted. Stephen didn't play well and was there for the taking. I had a good night's sleep and felt good but it just didn't click for me. He gave me plenty of chances."

Two admirable clearances, 55 and 59, to win on the black enabled Gilbert to equalise yesterday at 6-6 and 7-7 respectively but of the remaining three frames he could say only: "I kept missing, missing and missing. I suppose I twitched up completely. I didn't feel nervous but I suppose the Crucible jitters got me at the end."

At least he pocketed £10,600 as a first-round loser from an experience more memorable and encouraging than the month's potato-planting he would have been undertaking if he had not qualified.

Neil Robertson, the Australian left-hander who has beaten Ronny O'Sullivan twice in winning two ranking titles this season, albeit over nine frames, will face him again over 25 with a quarter-final place at stake after beating the Welshman Ryan Day 10-5. Springy cushions, many kicks and errors accounted for a lower standard than expected. Robertson's potting was the more reliable and compensated for positional imprecision but he will need to play better against O'Sullivan.

Stephen Lee, the No10 seed, was ungraceful in defeat after going down 10-7 to Mark Selby after being 5-0 up at one stage. "At 5-0 up I should have put my foot on his throat," he said. "He didn't play well and won, that's the biggest frustration. I thought he was going to bottle it because he's not a big-time player."