From Noel O'Reilly at the CityWest Hotel
31/03/01: It certainly wasn’t pretty, but Stephen Hendry won’t be unduly concerned after a comfortable 6-3 win over an out of sorts Mark Williams secured a place in tomorrow’s CityWest Irish Masters final.
On an error strewn afternoon the three-time champion was well worth the win with two century breaks, his first 100s of the tournament, helping him on his way. But the victory owed as much to the poor form of Williams, the current world number one, than Hendry’s prowess when handed opportunities.
Hendry came into today’s semi-final on the back of an emphatic 6-1 drubbing of Alan McManus and once again arrived in the arena in determined mood, keen to impress. However, a scrappy opening frame set the tone for the match with both players trading mistakes before Hendry assumed control to take it 69-24.
It was a pattern that was to continue throughout with Williams never settling into any sort of rhythm, missing easy pots and peppering his game with careless, basic errors. On more than one occasion the Welshman gave himself a talking to after sloppy play and never looked a threat to Hendry.
A frustrating day’s work was summed up in the 8th frame when, going for a thin cut, Williams missed the object ball entirely to once again hand the initiative to his rival. Indeed, with the number of chances he was presented with, it was a wonder that Hendry did not win finish off Williams earlier.
Surprisingly, Williams wasn’t too concerned with his own performance. "I felt I played quite well," he told a bemused press conference afterwards. "But Stephen played a lot better than me and deserved to win."
Hendry was, perhaps, closer the mark in his appraisal of how things went.
"I caught him on an off day," the Scot explained. "Mark is capable of playing a lot better than that . . . at times the shots he was making were even putting me off my concentration because I was surprised to be getting back on the table so quickly."
Hendry will now face either Ronnie O’Sullivan or Peter Ebdon in tomorrow’s final and will know more consistency is required. Yes, there were flashes of vintage Hendry. A quickfire break of 100 in the second frame to go two frames to the good was bettered with a 113 in the fifth to build a four frames to one lead.
However, Williams was allowed to claw his way back into contention and take frames 6 and 7 to reduce the advantage to just one before Hendry reasserted his dominance.
Wins of 102-1 and 75-9 in frames 8 and 9 respectively clinched the 6- 3 victory for Hendry who now contests his seventh final in the quest for his fourth Irish Masters title.
