The 42-year-old Scot is flying Down Under this week for the first ranking event of the season, the Australian Goldfields Open in Bendigo. The event starts on Monday and Hendry faces Martin Gould in his opening match.
Patchy form in recent seasons has seen Hendry drop to 17th in the world, his lowest position since 1987/88 when he was still climbing the list. However, the seeding list for tournaments will not be revised until early October, which means Hendry has until then to get back into the top 16 and avoid having to qualify for tournaments.
"That's my immediate goal, to be in the top 16 when the cut-off point comes," said the seven-times World Champion. "But my longer term goal is to get into the top eight. You have to set yourself high targets and I think it's achievable.
"The start of the season is always something to look forward to and I want to get off to a good start. I've been practising a lot, in fact I've hardly stopped since the end of last season. It's probably the first time in my career that I've not really had a summer break. I have a table at home so it's easy just to do a few hours."
Hendry feels that the players competing in this week's World Cup in Thailand, including top-two ranked Scots John Higgins and Stephen Maguire, will have an advantage next week in Australia.
"They're half way around the world already so it's less of a journey and easier to acclimatise," said Hendry. "Australia is a long way to go from the UK. I won my first professional tournament in Sydney in 1987 (the Australian Masters, a non-ranking event) and haven't been back since. Everyone wants to have a worldwide circuit and see the game grow in different parts of the world so it's great that we have a new tournament there."
Tickets for the Australian Goldfields Open are still on sale - for details see www.worldsnooker.com/tickets
