Former champion Mark Williams threatened to make arch-rival Ronnie O'Sullivan's day even worse at the Embassy World Championship tonight.
Williams holds comfortable Crucible lead
Former champion Mark Williams threatened to make arch-rival Ronnie O'Sullivan's day even worse at the Embassy World Championship tonight.
Williams and O'Sullivan were locked in an acrimonious verbal feud at last month's Irish Masters following comments made in O'Sullivan's autobiography.
And after the 'Rocket' was shot down 10-6 by Marco Fu, it looked as if he may suffer double disappointment when Williams potted 10 reds and 10 blacks in the second frame of his first round match against qualifier Stuart Pettman.
But Williams, the winner three years ago, missed an awkward 11th red as his 147 bid stalled on 80. Had he completed the maximum, he would have shared O'Sullivan's £169,000 prize for his 147 against Fu on Tuesday.
Williams went on to make further breaks of 52, 56 and 70 as he coasted into a 7-2 first session lead, leaving himself just three frames from a second round meeting with Australian Quinten Hann.
Earlier, world number one O'Sullivan, who amassed his maximum 147 in the seventh frame of the contest with Fu, crashed out to the Hong Kong player. O'Sullivan, who started the session 6-3 behind, fell further adrift and at 9-4 was on the brink.
He raised hopes of an unlikely revival by taking the next two frames but lost the 16th and bowed out.
Afterwards the 27-year-old Essex player said: "Credit to Marco, he stuck to his guns. He was stronger over the two days.
"They are all good players out there and when you are not firing on all cylinders your opponents will take advantage.
"I would rather give credit to Marco. Weird things happen and you have just got to deal with them.