Stephen Hendry challenges snooker star to bounce back from disappointing season

Stephen Hendry feels Mark Allen needs a good season after a disappointing campaign last time round, challenging the Pistol to get back to his trophy-winning best.

The Northern Irishman did not have a disastrous season by any means, winning the non-ranking Riyadh Season Snooker Championship in December, but it was not his best and he admitted being frustrated with his game in the second half of the campaign.

It got to the stage in March that his confidence was so low that he said he didn’t want to qualify for the upcoming Players Championship, which only features the top 16 players on the one-year ranking list.

The fact he did qualify for that event shows that it was not a calamitous campaign, but a first round defeat and then a second round loss at the World Championship rounded off an underwhelming campaign.

The 39-year-old has 11 ranking titles to his name, five of which came in the last three years but none last season, and Hendry has called on him to rediscover the form of the recent past.

‘I’d be interested to see Mark Allen this year. He had a disappointing season last year, for him,’ Hendry said on WST’s Snooker Club podcast.

‘After the couple of seasons before becoming a serial winner, picking up a lot of silverware.

‘I’m not saying he’s going to struggle or drop out of the top 16 or anything drastic like that, but I think he needs to get back and get a good season.’

Steven Hallworth, professional player, commentator and pundit, feels that Allen is searching too much for the answer to his form problems and should get back to basics.

‘He did a lot of tinkering with different coaches and I see him at a couple of events on the practice table doing things that didn’t look like they really suited him and I think he just lost his way a little bit,’ said Hallworth.

‘If he can get rid of that and go back to just potting balls and playing the game that we all know he can then I think he’ll be alright.’

Allen actually went to Hendry for advice last season as he looked for a boost to his game and felt it had helped him after a good first round win at the Crucible over Fan Zhengyi.

‘I spoke to Stephen Hendry after I lost in the Players Championship,’ he explained after beating Fan in Sheffield. ‘Just asked him if he had any advice. He said: “Take yourself away for a few days and don’t bog yourself down on the practice table.”

‘I’ve never done that in my career ever. Never mid-season have I gone away, other than between Christmas and New Year. It’s always been the way I’ve worked.

‘I feel like if I’m missing a day of practice I deserve to not play well the next day. I feel guilty for taking days off. But he pushed me down the road of taking a few days off and literally overnight I booked a flight to Dubai just thought about nothing snooker-related at all for a few days.

‘I came back a little bit fresher and hit the ground running on the practice table, which was good.’

Allen is enjoying plenty of time off over the summer as he is yet to play a match and has pulled out of the upcoming Shanghai Masters for personal reasons.

‘I would have loved to play in Shanghai but I’m not able to make it this year for family reasons,’ he said.

‘I’d like to apologise to the fans, our partners in Shanghai and my sponsors Liberwin and Omin as I have always enjoyed playing in this fantastic event. I’ll be working hard to make sure I’m in it next season.’

One player Hendry does expect to shine next season is someone who has been relentlessly consistent for years now, Judd Trump.

Asked who he expects to win more tournaments than anyone else this season, the seven-time world champion quickly backed the world number one.

‘I think Trump again,’ he said. ‘I think he’s still at the peak of his career. He’s a winning machine. It’s very, very difficult to make a case for anyone else than Trump this year.’

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