Hendry hails victorious Robertson

Neil Robertson earned the respect of Stephen Hendry after keeping his cool to beat the seven-times world champion in Newport tonight.

The Australian left-hander delivered his most convincing performance since winning the Grand Prix in October to beat Hendry 5-3 and reach the quarter-finals of the Welsh Open.

Robertson made a 70 break in the first frame, stole the second on the black from 61-0 adrift with a 68 clearance and marched into the interval with a 4-0 advantage thanks to a 141 total clearance in the fourth.

That was Robertson’s highest break in professional competition, eclipsing a run of 139 in the 2005 World Championship, and put Hendry in serious danger of suffering a rare whitewash.

However, the Scot has been responsible for several of the most unlikely comebacks in snooker history and typically refused to capitulate.

Over the course of the following three frames Hendry put together runs of 64, 96 and 83, scoring 255 points without reply as Robertson, suddenly relegated to the role of a spectator, was confined to his chair.

It looked likely that Hendry would pull off a great escape, even by his standards, but early in frame eight Robertson trapped him in an excellent snooker and made the most of the opening that resulted.

Even though the balls were far from ideally spread the 25 year-old from Melbourne kept his cool to compile a 51 break that left Hendry requiring snookers.

“Considering that I’d frozen Neil out for so long his break to win it was fantastic. He potted a really good red to a middle pocket to get started and took them really well from there,” said Hendry.

Robertson advances to play Ronnie O’Sullivan, who was the first to secure a quarter-final spot with a 5-1 win over Mark Selby.

Hendry’s defeat left Stephen Maguire as the sole surviving Scot following his 5-3 win over Ken Doherty, who arrived in Newport top of the provisional world rankings.

“It wasn’t the best snooker in the world but you can never complain about any win against someone as tough as Ken,” said Maguire, attempting to claim his first silverware since the 2004 UK Championship.

Next up for the Glaswegian is Shaun Murphy, who followed up his four-century, 5-0 whitewash of Jamie Cope with a far more draining, far less entertaining 5-4 success at the expense of Jamie Burnett.

Andrew Higginson, a 29-year-old from Widnes who was promoted from the game’s second tier Challenge Tour last season, was also celebrating after guaranteeing his debut appearance in a world ranking tournament quarter-final.

Higginson, the surprise second-round conqueror of John Higgins, recovered from the loss of the first frame to beat Dubliner Michael Judge 5-1.

A run of 117 in frame two settled early nerves and Higginson eventually crossed the line with style with a classy 133 break.

“I was more nervous out there than I was against Higgins. I wasn’t the underdog anymore and I knew I had a big chance to go through,” he said.

“At 3-1 I was feeling a bit twitchy but the balls kept finding their way into the pockets.”

Higginson moves forward to play Ali Carter, who edged Nigel Bond 5-4 from 3-0 down.