Mark Williams admits he was terrible after being dumped out of UK Championship

 
4 December 2012

One of snooker's old guard and one of the game's fresh faces were involved in shocks last night, as Mark Williams went out of the williamhill.com UK Championship and teenager Luca Brecel went through.

Williams (above) called his performance "shocking" as he was beaten 6-3 by fellow veteran Mark King, with the Welshman joking that retirement may be on the cards after he joined fellow big name Mark Allen, Judd Trump and Ding Junhui in bowing out at the first-round stage.

Seventeen-year-old Belgian Brecel is through to the second round of a major tournament for the first time, though, after winning two frames on the spin to defeat last year's semi-finalist, Ricky Walden, 6-5 in an attritional battle.

Brecel is not lacking in confidence having tipped himself to reach the last eight in the build-up, and he showed last night he has what it takes to back up his words. His break of 36 in the decider will not appear on many highlight reels, but it was a match-winning one.

"This is unbelievable," Brecel said afterwards. "It was very tough. Ricky is a great player. It wasn't the best game but I won so I am very pleased.

"This is very big for me and I still can't believe it. Hopefully I can now go to the quarter-finals."

Brecel's match finished long after Williams had gone out. Even though the world number five seemed to be joking when he uttered the word retirement in a radio interview, it was clear he was not happy with almost every facet of his game.

"I was terrible. Shocking," Williams said.

"I felt all right going in but I couldn't pot three balls on the trot. The table was beautiful, there was a good crowd, everything you could want. It's getting boring for me to say how badly I am playing. I couldn't beat a man with no arms at the minute."

King now meets Brecel in a second-round clash no-one predicted, but there were no such shocks for Australian Neil Robertson who brushed past Tom Ford 6-1, cracking in four centuries on the way to setting up a meeting with Barry Hawkins.

The 30-year-old is chasing the title to make him the eighth man in history to have the World, UK and Masters titles on his resume and he is warming to the task.

"It would be fantastic to hold the Masters and win the UK, that would be a special feeling. I have the opportunity to do that and to win all three in a short space of time would be great," he said.

In yesterday's other game, Matthew Stevens prevailed 6-1 in an all-Welsh affair with Dominic Dale, who had to head off straight after the match to receive attention for what he suspected was an outbreak of shingles.

In today's second round, Mark Joyce takes on Ali Carter, looking to replicate his win over Trump, while Stevens is straight back in action against Allen's conqueror, Marco Fu.

The evening session pits title outsider Stuart Bingham against Stephen Maguire and two former world champions against each other in the shape of Graeme Dott and Shaun Murphy.

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