Hendry sneaks into the Premier League play-offs - 27/11/2008

STEPHEN Hendry has claimed the final place in this season's PartyPoker.com Premier League semi-finals.

Stephen Hendry

The six-time Premier League champion locked horns with Chinese cueman Ding Junhui in a make-or-break final qualifying group clash at the Glades Arena in Kidderminster.

Hendry needed a draw or better from their best-of-six frame encounter and clinched a 3-3 scoreline to secure a spot in the final four alongside Mark Selby, Joe Perry and defending champion Ronnie O'Sullivan.

"I'm delighted to qualify," admitted Hendry. "After I lost my first two matches I thought I had to win every single match but it turned out that I got away with a couple of draws. But it's a great performance to qualify after the start I had.

"I missed a bad pink in the first frame and Ding punished me and I then missed a long shot in the third and he punished me again.

"I missed a blue in the last and I thought that my chance had gone but fortunately I got another opportunity.

"He wanted to be me and if he had done so then he wouldn't have been feeling sorry for me - that's sport. He had a great chance for a maximum so I'm sorry he didn't get that but I'm not sorry for taking his place in the semi-finals."

In a high-quality encounter, Ding took the opener with a break of 85 before Hendry levelled it with a score of 88 although a missed pink denied the Scot an opportunity of a century.

Ding nearly became the first player to score a maximum 147 under the 25-second shot clock rules when he potted 15 reds and 14 blacks before missing the 15th after a break of 113.

Both players claimed one of the next two frames before Hendry held his nerve to seal a tense last frame to finish ahead of Ding in the table by winning one more frame from his six matches.

Stephen Hendry 3-3 Ding Junhui
36-85 (Ding 85), 88-1 (Hendry 88), 0-113 (Ding 113), 69-12 (Hendry 50), 8-72 (Ding 46), 69-13 (Hendry 38)