LIVE: UK Championships 1/4
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ByEurosport
Published 14/12/2006 at 12:12 GMT
Eurosport commentator and former world number six Mike Hallett looks ahead to Thursday's quarter-finals of the UK Championship - and gets excited about The Rocket against Stephen Hendry. Click on the red LIVE bar above for full scoring of the quarter-fina
SNOOKER 2005-2006 China Open - Stephen Hendry
Image credit: Imago
Ronnie O'Sullivan v Stephen Hendry
Everyone was hoping that Stephen Hendry was going to come through against Mark Williams and set up the quarter-final clash that everyone wanted to see. Both players love to play attacking, open snooker and it should be a cracking match.
We thought that Mark Williams would be the favourite in that third-round match but it turned out not to be the case. Stephen didn't start too well, but he really picked up his game in the later stages and, though he had a wobble or two, got over the line in the end.
Coming in to this tournament, Stephen was provisionally ranked number 11 and in danger of dropping out of the top 16.
But that first win against Dave Harold was absolutely massive for him. You could see that he was nervous and twitching. He didn't look settled at all and that was a big match for him to win.
But he will know that he has to go up another level against Ronnie O'Sullivan tomorrow.
I have to fancy Ronnie to edge through this one, as he is absolutely flying at the moment.
He is my favourite to win the tournament. If he puts it all together and his head is good, then he is the man to beat this week.
Steve Davis v Graeme Dott
The old man of snooker versus the current World Champion - it's a tricky one to call.
For Steve to still be doing what he does at his age is remarkable. He is by far the oldest man in the top 16, but is still competitive in almost every tournament he enters. Don't forget, he was the beaten finalist in this tournament last year.
But I think this will be a match too far for Steve.
Dott is bang full of confidence and, for me, looks to be a better player than when he won the world title back in May of this year.
He struggled to get past Alan McManus in the third round - just edging out his fellow Scot 9-7 - but he easily beat Scott MacKenzie before that.
The Pocket Dynamo looks good out there, and I don't think Steve is playing well enough to get past the world champion.
Mike Hallett will be commentating for British Eurosport during the UK Championships from York.
British Eurosport is available on Sky (Ch 410) and ntl:Telewest (Ch 521)
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