In the 1986–87 season, Hendry retained his Scottish Professional Championship title. Aged 17 years and 3 months, he was then the youngest player to compete at the final stages of a world championship, a record he held for 26 years until Luca Brecel made his Crucible debut in 2012 aged two months younger. He qualified for the 1986 World Snooker Championship, losing 8–10 to Willie Thorne in the first round on his debut. In the 1985–86 season, Hendry won the Scottish Professional Championship, becoming the youngest player to do so.
He was managed by entrepreneur Ian Doyle. In 1985, after retaining the Scottish Amateur Championship, he turned professional aged 16 years and three months he was then the sport's youngest ever professional. In 1984, aged 15, he became the youngest ever winner of the Scottish Amateur Championship. In 1983, he won the Scottish Under-16 Championship, and made his first televised appearance on Junior Pot Black. Hendry started playing snooker in 1981, aged 12, when his father bought him a child-sized snooker table as a Christmas present. Awarded an MBE in 1994, he was twice named the BBC Scotland Sports Personality of the Year, in 19. Hendry also competes on the World Seniors Tour and regularly features as a commentator and studio pundit for snooker coverage on BBC and ITV. After almost nine years in retirement, he returned to the professional tour in 2021 under an invitational tour card. Although he qualified for the 2012 World Championship, where he made his 27th consecutive Crucible appearance, he announced his retirement from professional snooker at age 43 after losing in the quarter-finals of the event. In the 2011–12 season, he fell out of the top 16 in the world rankings for the first time in 23 years. He won his last ranking title at the 2005 Malta Cup and reached his last ranking final at the 2006 UK Championship, again losing to Ebdon. He reached the last of his nine world finals at the 2002 World Championship but lost in a deciding frame to Peter Ebdon. Hendry's form became less consistent after his sixth world title in 1996 and his career declined in the 2000s, his play increasingly affected by the yips. His 777 career century breaks include 11 maximum breaks, putting him behind only O'Sullivan (15) and John Higgins (12) for the most officially recognised maximums in professional competition. One of three players to have won all three Triple Crown events in a single season, he is the only player to have achieved the feat twice, in the 1989––96 seasons. His 36 consecutive victories in ranking events between March 1990 and January 1991 and his 29 consecutive wins at the Crucible between 19 also remain modern-era records. Hendry won five consecutive Masters titles between 19 and five consecutive world titles between 19, both records in the modern era. His total of 36 ranking titles is second only to O'Sullivan's 39, while his nine seasons as world number one were the most by any player under the annual ranking system used until 2010. Hendry also won the Masters six times and the UK Championship five times for a career total of 18 Triple Crown tournament wins, a total exceeded only by O'Sullivan's 21. From 1990 to 1999, he won seven world titles, setting a modern-era record that stood outright until Ronnie O'Sullivan equalled it in 2022. He won his first World Snooker Championship in 1990 aged 21 years and 106 days, surpassing Alex Higgins as the sport's youngest world champion, a record he still holds. After turning professional in 1985 at age 16, Hendry rose rapidly through the rankings, reaching number four in the world by the end of his third professional season. Stephen Gordon Hendry MBE (born 13 January 1969 ) is a Scottish professional snooker player who dominated the sport during the 1990s, becoming one of the most successful players in its history.
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