Fergal O'Brien pulled off the shock of the season so far to send world number one Mark Williams crashing out of the UK Championship at York last night. The Dubliner defeated defending champion Williams 9-7 to bring a remarkable snooker record to an end. Williams had not lost his opening match in a world ranking event since February 1998 - 48 tournaments.
But the Welshman failed to hit top gear in a long, drawn out encounter and O'Brien finally secured his place in the last 16 with the aid of a fluked blue in the middle of a 66 break which won him the 16th frame. "I am very disappointed to go out playing like that," Williams said. "It was 16 frames of total rubbish. In every tournament I play really badly at some stage and I am getting sick of it."
Williams trailed 4-2 before clearing with 40 to win the seventh and then winning a 47-minute eighth after trapping O'Brien in a snooker on the pink. O'Brien failed to escape three times and went in-off after finally making contact, which gifted the frame to Williams. The evening session was littered with errors but O'Brien stuck to his guns and finally came through to face crowd favourite Jimmy White for a place in the quarter-finals.
And the victory was sweet for the 1999 British Open champion, who has slipped from a career high of ninth in the world rankings to 33rd after several lean seasons. "People thought I was dead they had not seen me on TV for so long," O'Brien joked afterwards. "It is great to have beaten Mark but we were both struggling. If he had won, I would have let him off the hook but by the same token, he let me off the hook because I didn't play well."
Earlier, Stephen Hendry failed to produce fireworks, but was still satisfied after booking his place in the third round. Hendry, five times a winner of the title, is the man in form after producing a vintage performance to win the British Open in Brighton last week. But the Scott admitted he was more concerned with getting over the line against John Parrott, whom he beat 9-5 to advance to the last 16. "It's a win and that is all you can say, Hendry said. I certainly didn't carry my form from the final in Brighton into this match."
Filed by James Boylan
