STEPHEN HENDRY MBE (Scotland)

World ranking: 3
Last five seasons: 2-2-1-1-1
Date of birth: 13-01-69
Lives: Auchterarder, Perthshire
Turned professional: 1985
Ranking tournament victories: 32
Last season’s prize money: £457,149
Career prize money: £6,667,236
Highest tournament break: 147 - seven times

When it comes to a debate on the greatest snooker player of all time there can be only one conclusion - Stephen Hendry.

The facts speak for themselves - 32 ranking tournament victories, seven Embassy world titles and more than 500 century breaks. No other player has yet passed 300.

No 1 on the world ranking list for eight years, he has also captured five UK Championships, two British Opens and six Benson and Hedges Masters titles, amassing well over £6million in prize money in the process.

Hendry made his first appearance at the Crucible back in 1986 as a 17-year-old. Four years later, he became the youngest ever world champion, beating Jimmy White 18-12.

The ‘Whirlwind’ was again on the receiving end for three successive finals from 1992.

Hendry showed all his fighting qualities in 1992, coming from 14-8 down to win 10 frames in a row.

The following year’s battle was just as intense and in a pulsating finish, Hendry triumphed 18-17.

Nigel Bond and Peter Ebdon succumbed in 1995 and 1996 but Hendry lost 18-12 to Ken Doherty in the 1997 final and then went down 10-4 to Jimmy White in the first round the following year.

Had the Hendry era come to an end? Not quite. He returned 12 months later to beat Welshman Mark Williams 18-11 and make it a magnificent seven, surpassing the modern-day record of six wins he had shared with Ray Reardon and Steve Davis.

The seventh title meant everything, prompting Hendry to say: “Without doubt, this is worth more than the other six titles put together. It was the one last ambition I had in snooker and I’ve proved I can do it.”

Hendry started the 1999-2000 season with a bang, winning the first two tournaments - the Champions Cup and British Open. Despite suffering a shock 10-7 defeat to little known qualifier Stuart Bingham in the first round at Sheffield, he bounced back to beat Williams 9-5 in the final of the altodigital.com Premier League.

The Scot has also made seven maximums to go with his seven world titles - six of them in front of the television cameras.

He became the first player to compile a 147 in a final in the 17th and deciding frame of the 1997 Charity Challenge against Ronnie O’Sullivan.

Made an MBE by The Queen in 1994 and voted BBC Scotland’s Sports Personality of the Year in 1987 and 1996, he was World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association Player of the Year in 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1995, 1996 and 1997.

He was Young Player of the Year in 1988.