Stephen Hendry confused by Kyren Wilson's 'strange' claim during Crucible final

Kyren Wilson's target to reach 11 frames in the World Snooker Championship final on Sunday night left Stephen Hendry confused. He said the goal was 'strange' after such a good start to the match.

The Warrior had a near-perfect opening session against Jak Jones at the Crucible and led 7-1 after the afternoon session on Sunday.

To the Welshman's credit, he was much more competitive on the evening, finishing the evening just 11-6 behind after a dramatic nine frames in Sheffield.

Wilson took the final frame of the session on the black after needing a snooker, which felt like a huge moment as it gave him a five-frame lead instead of three.

A relieved 32-year-old spoke briefly to the BBC after the evening session, saying: 'I'm proud of the way I kept it together.

“I kind of had it in my head that I wanted to go to 11 tonight after being at seven, so it was just a small target. Apparently goal achieved.'

Seven-time world champion Hendry was unsure why Wilson wanted to win only four of nine frames on Sunday night. He said if he had built such a big lead in the afternoon he would have been aiming for something similar on the next round. session.

“Stranger to me,” said Hendry. 'If you are 7-1 ahead, why do you want to lose the next session and only be at 11? When I'm 7-1 up, I want to push through and win the match as quickly as possible.

“But before the start of the day you would definitely make up the score, without a doubt. But with a 7-1 lead, I'd like to keep my foot hard on the pedal. But he will be very happy to win that last frame.'

Hendry felt that the brilliant final frame was crucial in the match, with its painful loss likely to end Jones' chances of a remarkable comeback.

“I tend to think this could be the end of his World Championship because he loses that frame,” said the Scot. 'A lead of five frames on day two is big. But he won this session, he can win another one.”

Hendry gave the world number 44 credit for recovering from a morale-sapping first session and believes there is still some hope for him if he can start in impressive fashion on Monday afternoon.

'Astonishing. That's more impressive than anything he's done in the championship tonight,” Hendry said of Jones on Sunday evening. 'To even bring this ginal to life, to make it a finale, because to be honest it was dead after the afternoon session.

“But he brought it to life and wow, the first two frames tomorrow afternoon are monster frames. If he loses them it's all over, so he has to rise like a spring tomorrow afternoon and win those first two frames.'

The final two sessions of the 2024 World Snooker Championship will be played on Monday at 1pm and 7pm.