World Snooker Championship 2023: Mark Williams romps to victory over Jimmy Robertson with six consecutive frames

Mark Williams romped his way to a 10-5 victory over Jimmy Robertson by winning every frame in the second part of their first-round match at the World Championship.

Williams trailed Robertson 5-4 going into Monday afternoon’s session, but won six consecutive frames to book a place in round two.

In 2018, Williams also beat Robertson 10-5 in the opening round and went on to win his third Crucible crown.

He will face Luca Brecel in the last 16 on Thursday, after the Belgian beat Ricky Walden on a decider.

Williams set the tone by thumping in a red at the start of the 10th frame to make breaks of 51 and 40 which levelled up the scores.

A break of 69 put the three-time world champion ahead and a 57 in the next meant there was more than one frame separating the two players for the first time in the match.

Robertson had his chances as Williams attempted a tricky swerve shot in frame 13, but a missed red with the rest when the balls were developed nicely proved costly, so the Welshman led 8-5 going into the mid-session interval.

Sometimes the interval can change the momentum in a snooker match, but Williams continued his fine form to move 9-5 ahead.

Robertson was ahead in what turned out to be the final frame of the match when he made a 34, his highest break of the afternoon.

The world No. 27 had a moment of misfortune when the cue ball went in-off, but Williams initially could not take advantage as he missed a red to the left middle, so the scores were at 42-38 with three reds left on the table.

Robertson missed another long red, leaving everything on, so Williams stepped in and sealed a place in the second round.

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