Going gets tough now, says Hendry

Stephen Hendry booked his quarter-final place at the Embassy World Championship in Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre, and said: ‘‘This is where the tough stuff really starts.’’

The Scot, seven times a world champion, faces Dubliner Ken Doherty in the last eight and expects more of a challenge.

Welshman Anthony Davies offered little resistance yesterday, Hendry cruising to a 13-3 victory which earned him an extra day off.

Doherty defeated Hendry in the 1997 final, however, and 33-year-old Hendry said: ‘‘Ken had a fright in his match so he might come out more relaxed in the next round, thinking that he might have gone out.

‘‘I haven’t been pushed yet but there’s no way it’s going to be a result like that in the quarter-finals.

‘‘It’s nice to have an extra day off to relax and get some practice in.’’

Anthony Hamilton takes a 9-7 advantage over Mark Williams into today’s final session.

Welshman Williams, the world number two, won the last frame of the session, a tense affair, to boost his hopes for today.

Meanwhile, John Higgins produced a devastating performance to lead fellow Scot Graeme Dott 8-0 in their second-round clash.

After inflicting a 10-1 defeat on James Wattana in his first-round match, Higgins carried on where he left off and scored three century breaks to move within five frames of a quarter-final place.

Dott has been through an emotional week after being told that May Lambie, wife of manager Alex and mother of his girlfriend, had tragically died of cancer during his first-round match with Robin Hull.

He battled bravely against Higgins - but in the end had no answer to the 26-year-old’s consistent, heavy scoring.

In the other match, Stephen Lee looked in good touch as he opened up a 7-1 lead over Australian Quinten Hann.

The world number eight registered breaks of 64, 46, 136, 39 and 73 to give himself a great chance of reaching the last eight.