Former world number one Mark Williams begins his quest for a third Welsh Open title on Tuesday with a tricky first-round encounter against Englishman Mark King. The Welshman, who won the tournament in 1996 and 1999, is the only home player to lift the trophy and he is being tipped to enjoy a successful run at the Motorpoint Arena in Cardiff.
Williams, who is one of the older statesmen on tour at 42 years of age, has been in good form during the 2017/18 season, having triumphed at the Northern Ireland Open, German Masters and Six-red World Championship. He has also reached the quarter-final in five other tournaments whilst a semi-final appearance came about at the Riga Masters in what has been arguably one of the best seasons of ‘The Welsh Wonders’ career. Attentions are now fixed on the Welsh Open and Williams will be hoping to continue his impressive run of form against King on Tuesday, having won the previous three meetings.
In total, the ‘The Welsh Potting Machine’ has come out victorious nine times against the Englishman whilst the latter has won the other eight encounters, setting things up nicely for the 18th match-up between the pair. King’s best performance this term came at the Indian Masters as he reached the semi-final but he has not tasted success since winning the 2016 Northern Ireland Open. Williams is the 1.33 favourite to advance into the second round whilst King is priced 11/5 to send the two-time champion packing.
Elsewhere on Tuesday, Michael White goes up against Martin Gould, John Higgins takes on Matthew Selt and Matthew Stevens does battle with Ken Doherty.