James Cahill beats Stephen Hendry in Cazoo World Championship qualifier

The 27-year-old laid the foundation for progress in taking a 7-2 lead after the opening session against the seven-time champion at Sheffield’s English Institute of Sport.

Looking to make a first Crucible appearance since 2019, when he defeated Ronnie O’Sullivan before losing to Stephen Maguire, Cahill posted seven breaks of more than 50 during his victory.

However, Hendry started brightly with a break of 102 – the 777th century of his career – giving him the opening frame.

Cahill responded however, taking a tight second frame before winning the third to establish an advantage he would never surrender.

Breaks of 77, 50, 54 and 57 in the next four frames then saw Cahill take charge in moving 6-1 ahead.

He seemed set to make it 7-1 when putting together a break of 63 in frame eight, only for Hendry to respond with one of 75 in taking it on the black.

Nevertheless, Cahill won the final frame of the afternoon session to leave him needing only three of the 10 scheduled in the evening for victory.

A break of 70 saw him move 8-2 in front before Hendry responded, firing in a break of 54 to win frame 11 and then taking the 12th for good measure.

Any hope of an unlikely comeback ended when Cahill’s break of 67 made it 9-4 before he closed out the match in frame 14.

Cahill plays Lei Peifan in round two, with the first session on Friday afternoon and the concluding one 24 hours later.

Cahill admitted, however, that he will need to improve upon Wednesday’s performance.

He told World Snooker: “I need to improve on that, there is no doubt about it.

“I got a lot of chances and Stephen was nowhere near his best.

“My long game needs to improve and my safety needs to be a bit better.

“In general, I think my game is there but it just hasn’t come out properly today. I’ll take one match at a time and see how it goes.

“I’d never played Stephen before, so I suppose I can tick it off now.”