Stephen Hendry, a long odds-on favourite to win an eighth world title after his 17-13 semi-final victory over the defending champion Ronnie O'Sullivan, rallied from the loss of the first four frames to split the opening session 4-4 only to trail again at 7-5 in his best-of-35 final against Peter Ebdon at the Crucible yesterday. Ebdon got off to a flying start despite a draining late night, having been within one ball of a 17-14 defeat by Matthew Stevens on Saturday before his grit, nerve and skill - allied to a timely stroke of luck - enabled him to survive to win 17-16.

Yesterday Ebdon caught the Scot cold, starting with four flawless frames, his opening sequence of 282 unanswered points including breaks of 65 and 100. In fact it was 52 minutes before Hendry potted a ball and at 4-0 down he had been outpointed 380-29. Hendry's safety had been slightly off-key and his long potting marginally off-target, but from his first clear-cut chance he made 126 and from a few behind cleared with 46 to recover to 2-4.

His run of 116 in the seventh equalled the 1998 John Higgins record of 14 centuries in a championship, and another looked on the cards until his 46 at the outset of the last frame of the afternoon was terminated by no pottable red emerging from his pack-opener. Ebdon, only 15 behind with two reds remaining, was unlucky not to develop either or both from their awkward position, but rather more clumsily went in off the yellow to leave Hendry a simple task to level at 4-4. Ebdon began the evening session with a break-off shot which led to a safety error by Hendry from which Ebdon compiled a total clearance of 134. From 0-56 Hendry eventually took the 10th on the black with a 40 clearance but Ebdon hung on without undue threat from his initial 52 in the 11th to regain the lead at 6-5. Leading 41-0 in the 12th, Ebdon made his first potting error of note. Hendry responded with 68 to leave Ebdon needing a snooker. The one Ebdon set up appeared simple enough for Hendry to escape but there was just enough room between the cushion and the green for the cue ball to slide round it and Ebdon cleared for the black-ball win which put him two clear at 7-5.

Ebdon had started the first session much as John Parrott had in opening up a 7-0 lead over Jimmy White in their 1991 final, his eventual winning margin.

Its conclusion was more reminiscent of the 1996 final in which Ebdon led 4-3 only for Hendry to prevail 18-12. As for Stevens, an 18-6 loser to Mark Williams in the 2000 final and on the wrong end of a 17-15 finish with Higgins in last year's semis, he was left to reflect on how an appearance in a second Crucible final was denied him after losing to Ebdon from two up with three to play in a long and engrossing Saturday evening.

Out on the circuit Stevens has lost from well in front more often than a player of his calibre should, but he could blame himself for only one defective shot in the dramatic climax, which came in frame 31 when he led by 33 with only 35 on the table. It seemed simple to play a snooker on the last red by rolling the cue ball tightly behind the pink to leave Ebdon in desperate difficulty. Instead Stevens left a thin edge from which Ebdon was able to play safe.

From a subsequent snooker, though, Ebdon was forced into one of those escapes in which he had to trust to luck where the last red finished. As it rolled to the vicinity of a corner pocket, it seemed certain that Stevens would have the easiest of match balls but it stopped in the only spot in that area in which it was safe - tight on the cushion.

Even then, Stevens looked the likelier winner when Ebdon, having potted the last red, took on a tough do-or-die pink from which failure would have left him needing two snookers to stay in the match. This pink opened the way to the 34 clearance with which he stole the frame by a single point.

The reprieved-man syndrome promptly kicked in and Ebdon seemed suddenly bursting with renewed energy and belief. A total clearance of 138 brought him level and in the final frame a 55 break, added to the 20 points in penalties he had extracted from an earlier snooker, carried him to the final.

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