Vintage Hendry sends Thunder down under

This year's Welsh Open is fast-becoming a tale of the veterans.

Following on from Steve Davis' heroics in Newport yesterday, Stephen Hendry took centre stage today with an impressive 4-1 victory against one of the title favourites, Neil Robertson.

Picture by Monique Limbos

As funny as it may sound, my immediate reaction to this result was not one of complete surprise.

I admit, Hendry is a far cry from the player who dominated the sport throughout the 1990s and established himself as the sport's most successful player ever. That said, his fall down the rankings is not a result of a loss of his game. Instead, it has been consistency that has cost him.

It's probably more frustrating for the Scot that he can still produce his best from time to time. Even now, he continues to show glimpses of his old self. The difference these days is that this is only in very small patches.

Anyone who's been watching Hendry recently will know he's actually been threatening a result like this for a while now.

His form in the cubicles has not been that of player struggling to come to terms with life outside of the game's elite. On the contrary, he's dusted himself down and produced some good snooker at times.

In the aftermath of the Nugget's win, a lot of people on my blog went on to claim his game has aged better than Hendry's. Victory against Robertson today proves that is a myth.

The seven-time world champion may be long past his best but being able to turn up and outplay one of the sport's top names shows he's not lost it yet.

There's arguably been no better player consistently over the season than Robertson and even he left Newport wowed by Hendry's vintage performance.

This kind of dominant display is more of a rarity for the Scot these days, and, because of this, his fans enjoy it even more and it's made even more special.

Well played Stephen.