Two of snooker greatest players of all time are set to rekindle their tense rivalry on the baize once again this week.

Ronnie O’Sullivan and Stephen Hendry will face each other in Bulgaria playing out four matches on consecutive nights – starting tonight (Tuesday).

Throughout the 1990s and 2000s the pair dominated the world rankings winning ranking tournament one after another. They have a combined total of 12 World Championships between them and it could have easily been more than that.

The pair will face each in the Eleven 30 series – a series of exhibition matches organised by Jason Francis who also promotes the newly formed World Senior Championships and qualifying tournaments.

It’s a winner takes all contest on each of the four nights in a best of eleven frames shootout with a 30 second shot clock in operation. Matches are being played throughout Bulgaria.

Tonight’s first match will be held in Plovdiv, Wednesday night’s second match takes place in the Bulgarian capital of Sofia and Varna and Burgas will host the other matches on Thursday and Friday respectively.

O’Sullivan said on his Facebook page: “Looking forward to 4 days in Bulgaria with the 7 times World Champ. Hope to see some of you there.”

According to Cuetracker, the pair faced each other competitively 56 times with O’Sullivan beating Hendry 30 times – one of them being the thrilling Welsh Open final in 2005 (see above video).