Player Profile - Mark Williams
DOB: 21 Mar 1975
Lives: Cardiff
Provisional Ranking: 11th (Main Tour) Ranking Points this Season
Last 5 Seasons: 12-8-9-2-1
Turned Pro: 1992
Ranking Tournament Victories: 16 – Welsh Open 1996, 1999; Grand Prix 1996, 2000; British Open 1997; Irish Open 1998; Thailand Masters 1999, 2000, 2002; UK Championship 1999, 2002; World Championship 2000, 2003; China Open 2002, 2006; LG Cup 2003
Last Seasons Prize Money: £70,775
Career Prize Money: (up to start of 2008/09 season): £3,683,605
Highest Tournament Break: 147 – World Championship 2005

Fans of Mark Williams were mightily relieved to see him finish the 2007/08 season with some positive results, and secure his place among the top 32 of the world rankings.
Half-way through the campaign, Williams had threatened to quit snooker if he did not keep his status among that bracket. "If I drop out of the top 32 then I would probably call it a day, that would be it,” said Williams after losing to Ken Doherty at the SAGA Insurance Masters. “I'm hitting the ball a lot better but I'm still getting the same results. It's very annoying.”
But the second half of the campaign saw Williams show some of the form that had made his twice world champion and twice world No 1, allowing him to finish the campaign at No 22 in the rankings – an impressive result bearing in mind that at one point he had slipped to No 40 on the provisional list.
The Welshman reached the quarter-finals of the Maplin UK Championship, beating Ricky Walden and Mark Allen before his run was ended by Stephen Maguire. He also appeared in the last eight of the Honghe Industrial China Open thanks to wins over Marcus Campbell and Peter Ebdon, only to lose to Ryan Day.
At the 888.com World Snooker Championship, Williams scored a convincing 10-3 first round win over Mark Davis, but could not match Ronnie O’Sullivan in the last 16, losing 13-7.
Williams’ last tournament success came at the 2006 China Open at the Student Gym in Beijing. He already had a fine record in Asia having won four ranking titles on the continent, and he further enhanced his reputation as a good traveller by making that a high five by beating John Higgins 9-8 in the final.
Known for his awesome single-ball potting and exceptional touch, Williams first ruled the Crucible in 2000 when he became the only left-hander to win the world title.
He came from 13-7 down to beat fellow Welshman Matthew Stevens 18-16. His second world title followed three years later when he beat Ken Doherty by the same scoreline in another close final. That completed an incredible hat-trick of snooker’s biggest titles as earlier that season he had won the UK Championship and the Masters.
Williams made the first competitive 147 of his career in a match against Rob Milkins at Sheffield in 2005 – and that was handy timing as it scooped him a £161,000 bonus. He became the fifth player to make a maximum at the Crucible.
In 2004, Williams was awarded the MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list. "It is a tremendous honour for me, for Wales and for the game of snooker," he said.
In his teenage years, Williams was a keen boxer and won several fights before being on the wrong end of a thumping from an older, heavier boy which curtailed his brief career in the ring. His hobbies include playing golf and five-a-side football as well as driving exotic sports cars. Fiancée Joanne gave birth to their first child, son Connor, in 2004.

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