/origin-imgresizer.tntsports.io/2026/04/24/image-471754cc-99c4-48e9-a4e4-90ff68b4ecea-85-2560-1440.png "Mark Williams responds to ‘barber’ and ‘vision’ jabs in Rob Walker walk-on intro during World Championship opener")
Williams responds to ‘grief’ from Walker during Crucible walk-ons
Video credit score: TNT Sports
Speaking forward of his second-round conflict towards Barry Hawkins, Williams urged Walker to be much more scathing in his subsequent try.
“I don’t mind, honestly he can say anything he wants to me, water off a duck’s back,” Williams advised TNT Sports. “He says to me, ‘I’m not upsetting you am I?’ I said Rob, ‘the more grief you can give me the better, just crack on’.
“He can’t say something to upset me. If you possibly can say something and upset me you’ve executed nicely, as a result of Walker has been attempting for 40 years and he hasn’t been ready to do it. I don’t take something too severely, say what you need. I find it irresistible.”
| MC Rob Walker speaking before Mark Williams’ match against Antoni Kowalski |
| “Twenty-nine years in the past on this very day, it was his flip, to be the fresh-faced 22-year-old debutant, with boyish attractiveness, a full head of hair, and excellent imaginative and prescient! How little has modified in the intervening years. He hasn’t been to a barber in a long time, however lest we overlook, he stays one in all our all-time greats. Finalist at 49, 3 times a champion de monde, it wouldn’t be a Worlds with out Willo. Here he comes, the irrepressible, irreplaceable, Mark J Williams!” |
Speaking in the TNT Sports studio after his first-round win, Williams said he was still “holding off” surgery to improve his vision, saying his eyesight is worse than it was last year.
But his form has not suffered as a result. He made it all the way to last year’s final in Sheffield, where he went down to defeat against Zhao Xintong.
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Williams laughs off amusing intro ahead of Kowalski clash
Video credit: TNT Sports
Williams became snooker’s oldest-ever ranking event winner, when he beat Shaun Murphy to lift the Xi’an Grand Prix title in October. It was his 27th ranking event success, helping him retain his lofty ranking at No. 6 in the world.
And there could yet be more silverware in Williams’ illustrious career, as he told TNT Sports he has no plans to retire anytime soon.
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‘You have a go!’ – Crucible erupts into laughter as Williams offers out cue for tricky shot
Video credit: TNT Sports
Referencing his ‘Class of 92’ colleagues Ronnie O’Sullivan and John Higgins, Williams said: “I simply did an interview with Steve Davis, and he requested me ‘which of you goes to hand over first?’.
“I said ‘it’s not me!’. I have already made up my mind, when I drop off the tour, I will keep playing in the amateurs, and travel around with my boy [13-year-old son Joel] if he’s still playing.
”So I’m out of the equation. It’s who’s going to crack out of those two, because I’m staying, even if I drop off the tour. I’ll be on the amateur circuit, trying to get back on.
”I am going to see where I am at 55, in the top 16 or wherever, and just keep on trucking.”
