Williams Takes A Tip And Makes It Through To Last 32

Mark Williams scrambled into the last 32 of the BetVictor Welsh Open thanks to an emergency repair to his cue tip just before his match against Rod Lawler.

Home favourite Williams – who last won this tournament back in 1999 – won 4-2 with a top break of 71 to set up a third round tie with Kurt Maflin in Cardiff. Victory brought relief for the world number 14 whose hopes looked in tatters shortly before the match.

“I was on the practice table and I miscued, taking a big chunk out of my tip,” Cwm cueman Williams explained.

“It was only 25 minutes before the match, but luckily Matt Selt was there and he put a new tip on for me. The only problem now is that I owe him a favour and he’ll never shut up about it.

“Usually it takes a while to knock in a tip so I didn’t expect to play well, but a few of the long ones went in and I played a lot better than I did yesterday.

“There are a few Welsh players left, our record has been poor here for many years but it can’t be long before one of us gets to the final.”

Neil Robertson beat Stuart Carrington 4-1 with a top break of 79 while Joe Perry saw off Li Hang 4-2.

Welshman Ryan Day made an 87 in the decider to beat Mike Dunn 4-3 while Mark Allen beat Shoot Out champion Robin Hull by the same scoreline.

Fergal O’Brien won a 35-minute decider to beat Ali Carter 4-3 while China’s Ding Junhui came from 3-2 down to beat Joe Swail 4-3. “I just believe in myself and I can do that for the next match,” said Ding. “You have to take the chances very carefully, score heavily and keep your opponent sitting down. I think I did well today.”

German Masters champion Martin Gould beat Jack Lisowski 4-3 to maintain his hopes of back-to-back ranking titles.

In the last match to finish, concluding at 12.40am, world number one Mark Selby beat Peter Lines 4-2. Selby crucially won the fifth frame after getting the snooker he needed, then closed out victory in the next with a 128 total clearance.