Jimmy White pays tribute to Stephen Hendry after seven-time world champion announces retirement from snooker He's always put snooker first, been a model professional, credit to the game and I'll see him in the legends tour this year for more battles. I thank him sincerely for some of the best matches and memories of my own career. I'm not sure his records will ever be equalled! Hendry, 43, plans to devote his time to business interests in China, deciding he did not have sufficient time to attend to those and to maintain a snooker career. Shaun Murphy, the 2005 world champion, wrote on Twitter: "Most successful snooker player of all time, Stephen Hendry retires. Can't believe it. Former world No 3 Neal Foulds added: "Probably the greatest snooker player ever. I wish him well with whatever he does outside of playing professionally. Maguire, who was given a helping hand into the professional ranks when he practised with Hendry as a teenager, rates his 43-year-old compatriot as second to none among Scotland's sporting legends. You would think so. Obviously there's a couple of football players who would think something different but I'm not a football fan so I would say yes," Maguire said. He's done everything in the game and he's done it with a bit of class. With 36 ranking titles, six Masters triumphs, and 775 career centuries, Hendry ranks as snooker's most successful player of the modern era. He woke today to life as a former tournament snooker player, having turned professional in 1985. He has commitments to play exhibition events, but does not intend to play competitively again. Maguire pinpointed another Scottish player, John Higgins, as the only player in the game who might challenge Hendry's mark of seven world titles. Higgins, 36, has won four times in Sheffield, putting him one ahead of Ronnie O'Sullivan. "I think the only one that can do it is John," Maguire said. He's got four and John's got plenty of years left. He's the only one really I can see who can match it. Maguire was clinical against Hendry, who could not match the form which saw him beat Stuart Bingham 10-4 in round one, when he made a record-equalling third World Championship 147 break, and John Higgins 13-4 in round two. "I know he'll not be happy with the quarter-finals," Maguire said. But to get another maximum at the Crucible and to beat the defending world champion, he's left a mark on this tournament again, so fair play to him.