Amateur years (1982–1985) Hendry's first tournament win was an under-16 "Stars of the Future" event at a Pontins holiday camp in
Prestatyn, Wales when he was 14. After winning both the Scottish and
British Under-16 Championships, he made his first televised appearance in 1983 on
Junior Pot Black, where he defeated
Nick Pearce but then lost to Steve Ventham in the semi-finals. In 1984, he became the youngest ever winner of the Scottish Amateur Championship. At the
1984 World Amateur Snooker Championship he became the youngest player ever to participate in that championship. He finished sixth-placed in his qualifying group of nine participants, and did not qualify for the final stages. He discussed his snooker career with his father and they agreed that he would seek to turn professional as they felt, according to Hendry, that he "couldn't learn anything as an amateur... If I wanted to learn I had to be in with the big boys." In February 1985, his application for professional status was accepted by the
World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association. Two months later, he retained the Scottish Amateur Championship. Aged 16 years, he was then the sport's youngest professional. Doyle, who was influenced by
Barry Hearn's style of management, arranged a series of money matches against leading players for Hendry, mirroring the way that Hearn had arranged matches for
Steve Davis before he turned professional.
Early professional years (1985–1989) title at the
1987 Grand Prix. In his
debut season as a professional, Hendry earnt his first
ranking point at the
1986 Classic, eliminating
Dessie Sheehan,
Graham Miles and
Silvino Francisco before losing 4–5 to
Neal Foulds. He also won the
1986 Scottish Professional Championship, becoming the youngest player to win any national professional title. Aged 17 years and 3 months, he was then the youngest player to compete at the final stages of a world championship, a record he held for 26 years until
Luca Brecel made his
Crucible debut in
2012 aged two months younger. In his 2025 book
Pots of Gold, snooker journalist David Hendon wrote that from the start of Hendry's professional career, it was evident that he was unlike most other professionals: "The percentage game long favoured by established professionals and taken to new levels by [Steve] Davis was jettisoned in favour of all-out attack." Davis had won the
World Snooker Championship in
1981,
1983 and
1984, and had held the top position in the world rankings since the
1983–84 list. Hendry studied Davis's detachment from other players, and his professional attitude to preparation. Hendon quoted Hendry as saying "I looked at Steve Davis and thought, 'That's where I want to be. Nothing less would be good enough.'" After turning professional, Hendry felt that his technique would benefit from some "tweaking", and Doyle arranged for him to meet coach
Frank Callan who had previously worked with
Steve Davis,
Terry Griffiths and
John Parrott; this was originally envisaged as a short term engagement, but extended over several years. Callan noticed that Hendry had a "pumping" cue action and suggested that he should have a brief pause before striking the cue ball. This helped Hendry focus, which led to improvements in his . Callan also persuaded Hendry to consider more ; before this, Hendry's attitude, as he later described it, was "safety shots... get in the way of what I want to do, which is pot balls." In the
1986–87 season, Hendry and
Mike Hallett reached the final of the
1986 World Doubles Championship, which they lost 3–10 to Davis and
Tony Meo. Hendry reached his first ranking semi-final at the
Classic but lost 3–9 to Davis. He then retained his
Scottish Professional Championship title. Having won three qualifying matches to reach the main stage of the
1987 World Championship, he then eliminated Thorne and
Steve Longworth to progress to the quarter-finals. He lost 12–13 to defending champion
Joe Johnson, despite coming from 1–8 and 8–12 behind to force a . Hendry defeated Hallett to win the invitational
1987 Australian Masters, and was runner-up to Davis at the
1987 Hong Kong Masters. At the
1987 Fidelity International Open he reached the semi-finals, where he lost 1–9 to
Cliff Thorburn, later describing that match as "a pasting which barely sees me out of my chair." He won his first ranking title, the
1987 Grand Prix, beating Taylor 10–7 in the final; at the time, he was the youngest winner of a ranking title. He defeated three members of the top 16 to reach the final, including Davis. In 2018, Hendry wrote that he had been analysing videos of his past matches against Davis, and realised that he would benefit from playing more safety shots, and did this during his defeat of Davis. Following the final he commented that "I learned a lot from the match against Thorburn in the Fidelity and from various matches against [Steve] Davis". Taylor remarked that Hendry was "just what the game needs." Hendry captured his second ranking title at the
British Open with a 13–2 victory against Hallett in the final. He also won his third consecutive
Scottish Professional Championship, after which Doyle said that he would not be defending that title because "Stephen's fellow Scottish professionals are not good enough to test him." At the
1988 World Snooker Championship Hendry lost 12–13 to White in the second round after leading 10–7. He was named the
BBC Scotland Sports Personality of the Year for 1987, and reached number four in the
1988–89 snooker world rankings. Although he failed to win a ranking title during the
1988–89 season, He reached his first world championship semi-final in
1989 but lost 9–16 to the eventual champion Davis. He moved up a place to third in the
1989–90 rankings, behind Davis and Parrott.
World Champion and world number one (1989–1999) The
1989–90 season saw Hendry defeat
James Wattana in the final of the ranking
1989 Asian Open and beat
Terry Griffiths to win the invitational
1989 Scottish Masters. He took another ranking title at the
1989 Dubai Classic. Hendry remarked after the match that this was "The highest point in my career... I had to prove I could beat Steve over a long distance." he became only the second player to win the tournament in consecutive years.
(pictured in 2016) lost four
World Snooker Championship finals to Hendry. He won his first world championship at the
1990 tournament, beating
Jimmy White 18–12 in the final. He became the second player to win all three
Triple Crown events in the same season, after Davis had first achieved the feat two seasons earlier. Aged 21 years and 106 days, he superseded
Alex Higgins as the sport's youngest world champion, a record he still holds as of 2025. In the first round of the championship he was level at 7–7 with
Alain Robidoux before winning 10–7, then beat
Tony Meo in the second round and
Darren Morgan in the quarters-finals. He was 0–4 and 9–11 behind against
John Parrott in the semi-finals, but prevailed 16–11. The final was described by the snooker journalist Terry Smith as "a two-day high-speed potting battle that left the sell-out crowd virtually breathless." He became
world number one for the first time at the end of the season. After this, he gained the
Pontins Professional and
1990 London Masters titles. Hendry became the first player to win five ranking titles in a single season in
1990–91, and equalled Davis's record of eight tournament wins in a season. He won his second
UK Championship, defeating Davis 16–15 in the final. Hendry took a 6–1 lead, but Davis was a frame from victory and 49–0 ahead in the 30th frame when Hendry took that frame with a break of 57 and then added the deciding frame. During the season he earnt £694,056.58 in prize money, surpassing the record of £661,490 set by Steve Davis in 1988–89. He retained his place at the top of the
world rankings with 85 points; Davis was second, with 57 points. In the
1991–92 season, he won his fourth
Masters, defeating Parrott 9–4 in the final. He achieved his first
maximum break in professional competition while playing Thorne in the
Matchroom League. During the
1992–93 season, Hendry did not win any significant titles until January 1993, when he beat Drago 5–3 in the
1993 European Challenge, eight months after his world championship victory. He won his fifth consecutive
Masters, beating Wattana 9–5 in the final, He won his third world title at the
1993 World Championship, defeating White 18–5 in the final with a , having lost just 25 frames in the tournament. In the
1993–94 season, he reached the final of the
UK Championship but lost 6–10 to 17-year-old
Ronnie O'Sullivan, who won his maiden ranking title at the event. Hendry reached a sixth consecutive
Masters final but lost 8–9 to his compatriot
Alan McManus, his first defeat at the Masters. He won his fourth world title at the
1994 World Championship, despite fracturing his left arm just below the elbow the evening before his second-round match and keeping the arm in a sling when he was not playing. He clinched an 18–17 victory in the deciding frame of the final after White missed a off . It was the last time White featured in a World Championship final, having lost all six finals he contested, four of them to Hendry. Hendry was behind Davis in the provisional rankings after the
Thailand Open and
British Open but having defeated Davis in the world championship semi-finals and going on to win the title, he topped the rankings for a fifth consecutive year, with 53,330 points to Davis's 52,330. In 1994, Hendry was awarded an
MBE. In the
1994–95 season, he won the
UK Championship, defeating
Ken Doherty 10–5 in the final and setting a new record for the most
century breaks in a professional match, with seven. Hendry ended the season by winning the
1995 World Championship, defeating O'Sullivan 13–8 in the quarter-finals, White 16–12 in the semi-finals, and
Nigel Bond 18–9 in the final to claim his fifth world title. His break of 147 in the semi-final against White was only the third in the history of the championship. During the season he also won the
Top Rank Classic,
European Open,
Charity Challenge and the
European League, which contributed to him winning a record £740,550 in a single season, and took him over £4million in career prize money, with the highest career prize money earnings ever. Hendry again won all three Triple Crown events in the
1995–96 season: He beat
Peter Ebdon 10–3 to win his fourth
UK Championship, defeated O'Sullivan 10–5 to win his sixth
Masters. It was his sixth world title, equalling the modern-era record held by
Ray Reardon and
Steve Davis. In the
1996–97 season, Hendry won his fifth
UK Championship, coming from 8–9 behind to defeat
John Higgins 10–9 in the final. In the best-of-17 Liverpool Victoria
Charity Challenge final, he led O'Sullivan 8–2 but O'Sullivan won six consecutive frames to take the match to a deciding frame. However, Hendry won the decider with a maximum break for a 9–8 victory. At the
1997 World Championship, Hendry reached a sixth consecutive world final but lost 12–18 to Doherty, his first defeat in a world final and his first loss at the Crucible since
1991. His 29 consecutive victories at the Crucible over that period remains a record as of 2025. Hendry won his only ranking title of the
1997–98 season, the
1998 Thailand Masters, with a 9–6 victory over Parrott. It was his 29th ranking title, a new record, and one more than Davis. After eight consecutive seasons as world number one, he fell to second place in the rankings behind the new world champion
John Higgins. At the end of the season, he ended his working relationship with Callan cordially. In the
1998–99 season, he experienced a 0–9
whitewash to world number 73
Marcus Campbell in the first round of the
UK Championship. It was then the heaviest professional defeat of Hendry's career, surpassing his 1–9 loss to Thorburn in the semi-finals of the
1987 International Open. A couple of weeks later, he won the
Malta Grand Prix, but then had consecutive quarter-final defeats by
Tony Drago, a player who had never beaten him in 12 previous encounters, at the
German Masters and
Irish Open. He had a session with Del Hill, coach of
Ronnie O'Sullivan but did not find it helpful. John Carroll, Hendry's driver and "road manager", arranged for Callan to watch Hendry in a match, after which Hendry and Callan started working together again. Callan pointed out that Hendry was unintentionally putting on the cue ball when striking it, which Hendry then rectified, and encouraged Hendry to practice more. In his next match Hendry lost to Drago again, at the
1999 Masters, the first time that Hendry had lost in his opening match at the event. Soon afterwards, he won the
Scottish Open and later that season he won the
Irish Masters. He defeated O'Sullivan 17–13 in the semi-finals and Williams 18–11 in the final to win his seventh and last world title at age 30. Hendry held the modern-era record of seven world titles outright for the next 23 years, until O'Sullivan equalled it in
2022. After the match, Hendry said that the win was "worth more to me than the other six championships put together" and acknowledged Callan's help.
Later career and retirement (1999–2012) In the
1999–2000 season, Hendry won the
British Open, where he made the fifth 147 break of his career, which was also the first maximum made in a ranking final. He also reached the final of the
2000 Thailand Masters. However, he suffered a surprise 7–10 defeat to debutant
Stuart Bingham in the first round of the
2000 World Championship. He ended the season
ranked third, his lowest placing since 1989. In
2000–01, Hendry failed to win any ranking titles for the first time since the 1988–89 season, although he was runner-up at the
2001 Thailand Masters. He dropped to fifth in the
rankings. In the
following season, he won the
European Open and came close to an eighth world title at the
2002 World Championship, where he defeated the defending champion O'Sullivan 17–13 in the semi-finals but lost 17–18 to Ebdon in the final. This was Hendry's last appearance in a World Championship final, after featuring in nine of the thirteen finals held between 1990 and 2002. He made 16 centuries during the 2002 event, a record that stood outright for the next 20 years until Mark Williams equalled it in 2022. Hendry won the
Welsh Open in the
2002–03 season and the
British Open in the
2003–04 season. Returning from the
Euro-Asia Masters Challenge in September 2003, he had his
cue broken in the luggage hold of his international flight, where players had been required to stow their cues since the
11 September 2001 attacks. Hendry had used the
Rex Williams-branded Powerglide cue since he was 14. He reached the semi-finals of the
2004 World Championship but lost 4–17 to O'Sullivan with a session to spare. In the
2004–05 season, he was runner-up at the
Welsh Open, losing 8–9 to O'Sullivan. The following month, he defeated
Graeme Dott 9–7 to win the
Malta Cup, his 36th and last ranking title. He commented that, "It's not the way I would have liked to get back to number one but the facts and figures don't lie." It was his ninth season as world number one, which was a record. After O'Sullivan walked out of the arena, Hendry was awarded a 9–1 win. It was the last time Hendry reached a ranking final. In the quarter-finals of the
2009 World Championship, he made a maximum break against
Shaun Murphy, but lost the match 11–13. Aged 40, he was at the time the oldest player to make a maximum in a ranking tournament and the second player after O'Sullivan to make more than one 147 at the Crucible. Hendry ended the season ranked 10th, the first time he had been outside the top eight since the 1987–88 season. In the
2010–11 season, Hendry defeated White 9–8 in the first round of the
2010 UK Championship but lost 6–9 in the second round to Williams. Afterward, he expressed his frustration with his form and revealed that he has been suffering from "the
yips" for ten years, leaving him unable to through the ball and causing him to miss routine shots. He made his tenth professional maximum break at the
Welsh Open against
Stephen Maguire but lost the match. At the
2011 World Championship, he beat
Joe Perry in a first-round decider but again lost in the second round to Selby, this time by a score of 4–13. Hendry was becoming frustrated with his lack of success at tournaments, and agreed with his wife Mandy that he would try playing for another season, and then retire if he did not achieve success. He later wrote, "Having only just turned forty it seems somewhat premature, but I don't think I can spend much longer putting up with such humiliation, match after match, tournament after tournament, season after season." In the
2011–12 season, after losing to
Robert Milkins in the first round of the
Shanghai Masters, Hendry fell to 21st in the world rankings, ending his 23 years in the top 16 and meaning that he had to qualify to reach the main stages of subsequent ranking events. After losing to Maguire in the last-32 round of the
2011 UK Championship, Hendry was invited by
IMG, producers of the BBC TV coverage, to commentate on the semi-finals and final. During a visit to China to play an exhibition match, he discussed the possibility of working with Chinese billiard table manufacturers Joy to promote
Chinese eight-ball. Hendry was still very unhappy with his tournament results, and on his return to the UK he agreed with Mandy that he would accept the company's offer, and retire from competition after the
2012 World Championship. He missed the
Masters in 2012 for the first time since his 1989 debut, He lost 1–5 to Wattana in the
German Masters qualifiers, failing to reach the final stages of a ranking tournament for the first time in 15 years. He qualified for the
Welsh Open by whitewashing
Kurt Maflin 4–0 and then defeated reigning Masters champion Robertson 4–1 in the first round. However, he lost 0–4 to
Mark Allen in the second round. Hendry played Robertson again in the first round of the
World Open but lost 3–5. Hendry defeated
Yu Delu 5–1 to qualify for the
China Open, where he defeated
Martin Gould 5–4 in the first round, winning on the final black. He played Robertson for the third consecutive time in a ranking event but lost 3–5. Hendry ensured he would make his 27th consecutive appearance at the main stage of the 2012 World Championship when he defeated Yu 10–6 in the qualifiers. He made a 147 in his 10–4 first-round defeat of Bingham, his third maximum break at the Crucible and the 11th of his career. He defeated the defending champion Higgins 13–4 in the second round, his first victory over Higgins in a ranking event since 2003, to reach his 19th world quarter-final. However, after losing 2–13 to Maguire in the quarter-finals, Hendry announced his retirement from professional snooker at the age of 43, citing dissatisfaction with his standard of play and difficulty balancing competitive, commercial, and personal commitments. He stated that he had decided three months earlier to retire at the end of the season. He accepted IMG's invitation to work as a
pundit on the BBC during the final. He went on to become a regular commentator on the BBC. After delaying his return to competition several times during the 2020–21 season, he played his first professional match in almost nine years at the
2021 Gibraltar Open, losing 1–4 to
Matthew Selt in the first round. At the
2021 World Championship, he won his first-round qualifier 6–3 against Jimmy White, but he lost 1–6 to
Xu Si in the second qualifying round. During the 2021–22 season, Hendry competed in six ranking events between August and November but did not progress beyond the last 64 in any of them. He defeated
Chris Wakelin 3–2 in the first round of the
2021 British Open, but
Gary Wilson whitewashed him 3–0 in the second round. He defeated
Michael White 4–1 to qualify for the
2021 English Open but was whitewashed 0–4 in the first round by Wakelin, scoring just 18 points in the match. He lost 0–4 to
Allan Taylor in the
2021 Scottish Open qualifiers, 3–5 to
Li Hang in the
January 2022 European Masters qualifiers, and 2–5 to
Gao Yang in the
2022 German Masters qualifiers. After a 1–6 defeat to
Thepchaiya Un-Nooh in the first round of the
2021 UK Championship, he did not compete in any further professional events for the remainder of the season. He opted not to enter the
2022 World Championship qualifiers, stating that he had not been practising enough to be competitive, but confirmed that he intended to continue on the tour. In April 2022, Hendry's invitational tour card was renewed for a further two seasons, despite complaints from some players and concerns from snooker's governing body about his limited participation on the tour. His
2022–23 season began with a 0–5 whitewash by
Mark Joyce in qualifying for the
2022 European Masters and a 1–4 defeat to
Zhang Anda in qualifying for the
2022 British Open. He withdrew from the
2022 Northern Ireland Open and also withdrew from the
2022 UK Championship when the qualifying schedule conflicted with his broadcasting work for
ITV at the
2022 Champion of Champions. He played his third professional match of the season in the
2023 German Masters qualifiers, where he was whitewashed 0–5 by Stevens. At the
2023 World Championship, he lost 4–10 in the first qualifying round to his ex-wife's nephew
James Cahill, after which he said he still had "a very distant dream" that he would one day compete at the Crucible again. Hendry's
2023–24 season began with a 2–4 defeat to
Muhammad Asif in qualifying for the
2023 British Open. After losing 0–4 to
Fergal O'Brien in qualifying for the
2023 English Open, Hendry stated in a podcast interview that he was considering retiring again, calling his performances "embarrassing" and acknowledging that he had not been practicing for events. He led
Tien Pengfei 2–0 in the
2023 International Championship qualifiers but lost the match 3–6. He opted not to enter the
2024 World Snooker Championship qualifiers, and finished a second consecutive season without a professional win. In June 2024, he declined the World Snooker Tour's offer to renew his invitational tour card for a further two seasons. This marked his second retirement from professional snooker. "I know the game inside out, I still know all the shots, but unfortunately the body is not performing like my brain wants it to," he stated. He had lost 17 of the 20 professional matches he played since returning to the tour, including 14 consecutive defeats. ==Legacy==