Mark Williams crushes Michael White to reach second round at World Snooker Championship

ByEurosport

Updated 18/04/2022 at 16:19 GMT

Mark Williams will meet world No. 90 Jackson Page in the World Championship second round in Sheffield after sweeping aside Michael White. The three-time world champion, who last won the title in 2018, joins his fellow Class of '92 star Ronnie O’Sullivan in the next round, while John Higgins could yet to join them should the Scot see off Thepchaiya Un-Nooh in his first-round clash.

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Mark Williams cruised into the second round at the World Championship with a 10-3 demolition of Michael White.

In truth, the damage was done in the first session as the Welshman ripped through the first seven frames, hitting three tons as a whitewash loomed.

The first five frames were utterly dominated by the former world No. 1 as he knocked in breaks of at least 70 in each of them.

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White responded with two frames on Sunday afternoon to add a shred of respectability to the score. Prior to that, he had shown a flash of form with a half century in the sixth frame, but even then he lost it 58-50.

Any hopes of a famous comeback were quashed when Williams won the first two frames of the final session.

While Williams slowed the scoring rate per visit to the table, he still impressed in the 10th frame and followed it up with a half century in the 11th.

Three-time champion Williams - who won his first in 2000, followed up in 2003 but then was made to wait for a famous victory in 2018 - was made to wait as White made an 83, but sealed the victory with another century – adding a 121 to his prior knocks of 121, 116 and 138 – to book a meeting with debutant Jackson Page.

Page made a record-equalling three centuries on his Crucible debut as he downed Barry Hawkins 10-7 on Sunday.