STEPHEN HENDRY will face best friend on tour Matt Selt in his first professional match for almost nine years at next week’s Gibraltar Open.
The record seven-time world champion retired from the sport in 2012 but announced a shock comeback last year after accepting a tour wildcard invite in September from Barry Hearn.
The Scot, a snooker legend and one of the greatest players of all time, had a series of false starts by declining to enter the UK Championship and pulling out of the Pro Series.
The 52-year-old then suggested a “computer glitch” may have denied him entry to last week’s Welsh Open – but finally the big day will arrive next Tuesday against great golfing buddie Selt.
As well as spending hours with Selt, 35, on some of the best golf courses in the country Hendry has acted as a snooker mentor to his friend.
And on the draw he said: “That is unbelievable it is Matt. I have had a couple of practice sessions with him and obviously we are very good friends.
“That is outrageous, but I am just looking forward to it but it is amazing to be playing against someone I know so well.
“On the practice table I am probably hitting the ball better than when I retired due to some technical adjustments.
“But that means nothing when you go out there, that is what I need, the composure in a match.”
World No25 Selt finally won his first ranking title in 2019 at the Indian Open after regularly picking Hendry’s brains.
But now they clash in the event’s temporary home at Milton Keynes in what will inevitably a huge high-profile occasion to hail the return of a great champion.
Hendry won a total of 36 ranking titles including the seven world titles in his stellar first career, and made 775 centuries.