MARK WILLIAMS’ dreams of becoming the Crucible’s oldest champion are being destroyed by Zhao Xintong – “the “little s***” who bullied the Welshman aged FOURTEEN.
Willo, 50, is already the oldest world snooker championship finalist in history and despite being half-blind, he has been eyeing up a fourth crown.
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But he was bashed up in the first session by amateur cueist Xintong, 28, who dominated the afternoon proceedings of the two-day final.
Ken Doherty, the 1997 world champion, said Xintong “was almost born to play here” and is “destroying one of the greats, one of the icons of the game”.
Six-time world conqueror Steve Davis said: “There’s a little bit of self-sabotage – Mark has somehow frozen. It’s an uphill struggle.”
Williams first played a teenaged Xintong in 2011 in a televised exhibition in the Hunan region and despite the age gap, he was left impressed by what the youngster did.
The World No6 – whose eldest son Connor is only seven years younger than Xintong – said: “There were about 500 people in there.
“Probably 200 or 300million people were watching live on TV. It was 1-1, and he knocked in 113 or 138 or something to beat me 3-1, the little s***.
“But here we are, nearly 15 years later, I’m playing him in the final, which is unbelievable.”
Williams’ run to the final has had its highlights, notably the 13-12 last-frame quarter-final win over fellow Class of 92 graduate John Higgins, which was decided on the final balls.
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And also the way he managed to freeze out the World No1 Judd Trump 17-14 in the semi-finals in a tactician’s masterclass.
This is his fifth final and he is the first man to play a Crucible showpiece contest in FOUR different decades – 1990s, 2000s, 2010 and 2020s.
These are the first Worlds since the passing of “two legends of Welsh sport” – six-time champion Ray Reardon and 1979 Crucible winner Terry Griffiths.
Williams said: “Maybe I’ve got Griffiths on one shoulder and Ray on the other shoulder willing me on. I don’t know.
“It’s funny how things happen, but it’d be nice to win it for, obviously, myself and them as well.
“Because they’re the reason why most of us young Welsh people are playing snooker.”
Williams – who hurt his ankle last Wednesday while falling over a step in the media room – looked his age as he came gingerly down the stairs into the arena for the first introduction.
Xintong is known as the Cyclone for his fast starts and he opened up with a 77 break in the opening frame.
Crunch clash
Then he produced a 100 break in frame two, which saw a fantastic brilliant plant on the reds.
The Chinese amateur stole frame three on the black, even though he had to take evasive action when he was attacked by a FLY!
Williams finally put a frame on the board – he was 3-1 down during the mid-session interval – but losing frame six was a body blow given he had been 61-37 up.
Even though there was a brief interruption when a fan fell ill in the arena, Xintong ended the afternoon’s play with breaks of 104 and 83.
Xintong is aiming to become the youngest world champion since Shaun Murphy, who was 22, and the first qualifier since the Magician in 2005 to lift the famous silver trophy.
To reach the final, he had won 93 out of 142 frames since April 8 and nobody had played more snooker than that to get this far.