‘That’s unbelievable!’: Stephen Hendry meets Jimmy White in first round of World Championship qualification

The seven-time champion faced White on four occasions in the final of snooker’s biggest tournament, winning every time between 1990 and 1994

Stephen Hendry will face Jimmy White in the first round of qualification for the World Championship (Getty)

Stephen Hendry was left stunned after learning he will face old rival Jimmy White in the first round of qualification for the World Championship.

Hendry, a seven-time world champion, has begun a comeback after featuring at the Gibraltar Open following a nine-year absence due to retirement.

And now he will renew his famous rivalry with White, with the pair competing in four iconic World Championship finals over five years at the famous Sheffield venue, with Hendry victorious every time in 1990, 1992, 1993 and 1994.

White has never been able to get his hands on the grandest prize, despite featuring in six finals, while the ‘Whirlwind’ last reached the main draw in 2006 - and has been a losing qualifier in every year since then.

In order to gain entry to the first round of the World Championship, which gets under way on April 17, Hendry and White - who have a combined age of 110 - face four matches in a qualification event that starts on April 5.

Read more:

• Should football boycott the Qatar World Cup?
• A lost generation of future footballers
• Lewis Hamilton ‘being used’ by Black Lives Matter, claims Bernie Ecclestone
• Rio Ferdinand identifies Frank Lampard’s key mistake that led to Chelsea sacking
• ‘It’s nice that it’s just the norm for us’: Life in the most gender equal sport on the planet

Hendry, 52, found out the news while in his role as a pundit for ITV at the ongoing Tour Championship - and was incredulous when he found out that White was lying in wait for him.

“No, stop it,” he said. “I can’t believe that. You’re winding me up - that’s unbelievable.

“All those finals we played and now we’re starting off at rock bottom playing each other in the very first round. It’s incredible.

“We’ve been practising together as well, so that’s ended!”

The pair’s last meeting in the professional ranks went in Hendry’s favour as he won 9-8 in the last-32 of the 2010 UK Championship, but White, 58, defeated his old nemesis 4-2 en route to going all the way in the World Senior Championship last August.

PA