Three-time world champion Mark Williams beaten 10-9 by 2023 semi-finalist Si Jiahui at the Crucible; Welshman's exit means six seeds have now fallen in the first round so far; Ronnie O'Sullivan begins bid for eighth title against Jackson Page on Wednesday afternoon
Tuesday 23 April 2024 23:20, UK
Mark Williams' quest for a fourth World Snooker Championship title ended in the first round as he lost a last-frame thriller to 2023 semi-finalist Si Jiahui.
Sixth seed Williams - world champion in 2000, 2003 and 2018 - led 5-4 after Monday's opening session but then found himself 8-5 down as Si reeled off four frames in a row on Tuesday afternoon.
The 49-year-old then recovered from 9-7 down to force a decider but his Chinese opponent, 21, knocked in a nerveless break of 77 in the 19th frame to secure a second-round meeting with fellow qualifier Jak Jones.
Williams' exit takes the number of seeds eliminated in the first round to six, with defending champion Luca Brecel, four-time winner Mark Selby, Ali Carter, Gary Wilson and Zhang Anda also dispatched.
Williams was hoping to become the oldest champion in the tournament's history, a record held by Ronnie O'Sullivan, who was 46 years and 148 days when he won the most recent of his seven Crucible trophies in 2022.
Asked if he would be back at The Crucible next year, Williams said: "Who knows? I'll be 50 years of age.
"I'm not retiring, just treating every one as your last one. Fingers crossed you'll see me playing next year, who knows?
"I'm not considering my future really, just it's a tough game. You keep getting back to these venues and it's hard.
"Most of the ones for a while now, you've just got to treat it as if you're not going to get back here."
Si led Luca Brecel 14-5 in last year's semi-final, only to lose the match 17-15 as Brecel won 12 of the next 13 frames in a Crucible-record comeback.
Si's clash with Williams was viewed as one of the ties of the first round, with Williams winning the previous tournament on the calendar, the Tour Championship in Manchester.
Williams defeated Judd Trump, Mark Allen and O'Sullivan - the top three players in the world rankings - in successive matches to claim his second ranking title of the season, after the British Open in Cheltenham in October.
But he could not get past SI in Sheffield as his opponent saved his highest break of the match for when it mattered most.
Si said: "The first half of the match was quite nip and tuck, neither of us had brilliant form. But later on he gave me a lot more chances to let me have that lead at 8-5.
"My opponent was really, really accurate towards the end so it went all the way to the deciding frame.
"I always thought 'I am the challenger who's trying to take him down', so I didn't really feel the pressure and that's how I won it."
Robert Milkins and Pang Junxu's match also went all the way, with Milkins winning the final two frames to take it 10-9 and move into a second-round clash with Brecel's conqueror David Gilbert.
Elsewhere, 2020 finalist Kyren Wilson surged into an 8-1 lead over Dominic Dale.
Dale, the oldest player in this year's competition at the age of 52 and playing at the Crucible for the first time in 10 years, had one moment to cheer against Wilson - a sublime 120 clearance.
World No 17 Jack Liswoski leads seventh seed and 2016 finalist Ding Junhui 5-4, Mark Allen romped into a 7-2 advantage over Robbie Williams, and Ryan Day is 5-4 up on 15th seed Barry Hawkins.
The winner of Day vs Hawkins could face O'Sullivan in round two, with the Rocket beginning his bid for an outright record eighth world title against Jackson Page from 2.30pm on Wednesday.
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