Irish Masters: Hendry to meet Ebdon/O'Sullivan

Stephen Hendry beat world number one Mark Williams to claim his place in the final of the Irish Masters tomorrow.

Hendry defeated the Welshman by six frames to three at the Citywest Hotel in Dublin.

Hendry fired in a pair of century breaks on the way to reaching the final of a third consecutive tournament following his victory in the Rothmans Malta Grand Prix in February and his defeat by Ken Doherty in the Thailand Masters a fortnight ago.

It was another fluent display from the 32 year-old Scot, who gave fellow countryman Alan McManus a 6-1 hiding when they met in the quarter-finals on Thursday.

But Hendry also conceded that his task had been made considerably easier by a string of Williams blunders.

"Mark can play a lot better than that," he said.

"There were times when some of the shots he was playing affected my concentration, because I was surprised to be getting back to the table so quickly.

"You could see he was really struggling. I caught him on an off day but I'm sure he'll play 10 times better than that at the world championship."

Even so, in securing an appearance in the 95th final of a glittering 16-year professional career that has yielded almost £7million in total prize money Hendry at times looked back to somewhere near his best.

He put together a run of 100 - his 530th in professional competition - in the second frame and remained on course to repeat his demolition of Williams when they met in the Malta Grand Prix final.

Williams, who lost 7-1 on the Mediterranean island, quickly found himself 4-1 adrift after Hendry stylishly accounted for frame five with a 113 break.

The world number one responded by taking the following two frames - the latter on the black with a 33 clearance - to trail only 4-3.

But Hendry held firm.

Having won the event in 1992, 1997 and two years ago he controlled the eighth frame with an 86 break and put the lid on his third straight victory over Williams by adding the next.

The outcome was another source of disappointment for Williams, who has figured in eight semi-finals this season but has managed to lift only one trophy - the Grand Prix at Telford in October.