Mark Williams woke up on his 50th birthday and checked the world rankings, feeling rightfully proud of the number next to his name.
The Welshman reached his half-century last week and sits at number five in the world, which is all the more impressive given he has barely been able to see what he is doing lately.
At the recent Players Championship the three-time world champion admitted that his eyesight has deteriorated to the point that his game is really suffering, so contact lenses are being trialled for the first time at the upcoming Tour Championship, where he is the defending champ.
‘The last week I’ve been using contacts to try and play,’ Williams told Metro. ‘We’ll see, it’s not easy, it’s totally different. I can see everything clearly from the cue ball onwards.
‘It’s pretty weird. The balls look bigger than they ever have. The pockets are all clear, I can see everything. The balls look bigger but the cue ball is still blurry because contacts are for distance.
‘The eyes seem to have got worse in the last three to four months. I could read alright before but now I need reading glasses as well.
‘The best way to describe it is a red is blurry but it’s also three times the size, it’s like having three balls there. With contacts in it’s just one ball and clear as a bell, but it’s looking a lot bigger than normal so it’s a different angle. I’ve not seen it that clear for donkey’s years.’
Williams is renowned for letting almost nothing faze him and he has not allowed blurry balls and foggy, distant pockets stop him achieve remarkable things in the lead-up to his 50th birthday.
A final at the big-money Saudi Arabia Masters did wonders for his ranking, but he has also won the Champion of Champions this season, a non-ranking event but considered one of the most prestigious on the calendar.
He returns to Manchester for the Tour Championship which he won in serious style a year ago and there is no doubt he remains one of the best on the planet.
‘Even if the eyes were perfect I’d still be happy with what I’m doing at 50, competing with players and giving them a run,’ he said.
‘When I was 50 I woke up and looked at the rankings and I think I was at five. My aim was to be in the top 16 when I was 50. I don’t know how it’s possible but that’s what it is. I’m pretty proud of that. Not many people would have thought I’d be doing this well still.
‘I didn’t think I’d still be playing now, especially not in the top echelons of the game.’
Of course Williams is not the only veteran still among the best in the business, with his fellow Class of 92 alumni also still taking the majority of opponents to school.
John Higgins won the recent World Open to climb to number six in the world, while Ronnie O’Sullivan is at number four despite not playing in a ranking event in 2025 so far.
The Rocket has withdrawn from a string of tournaments, last performing at the Championship League in January, and doubts remain over whether he will be at the Crucible next month.
Williams, like the rest of us, does not know what O’Sullivan has got in mind, but would lean towards a World Championship without the seven-time champion this time around.
‘Look, I don’t know what the situation is, but if I was to have a guess now I’d probably say he’s not going to play,’ he said. ‘I don’t know, I’m just guessing.
‘He’s pulled out of the last tournaments so obviously he’s not ready or doesn’t want to play and he’s not going to play in the Worlds for £500,000 to the winner or to take over [Stephen] Hendry’s mantle.
‘I don’t really think he’s worried about that stuff. I know you boys [the media] put it on him that he wants to be past Hendry [on eight world titles] but I honestly don’t think he’s worried about stuff like that.’
O’Sullivan has skipped many events in the past but never the World Championship, not since he made his Crucible debut in 1993 and Williams hopes that the Rocket will land in Sheffield once again.
‘It would be huge and it would be disappointing for our game,’ he said of the 49-year-old possibly withdrawing from the Worlds.
‘All the tournaments that anyone is winning, they’re brilliant and you’ve done well to win it, but when he’s in a tournament it’s different class.
‘You get more crowd in. There’s more buzz. The sponsors are happy. All the other players are fantastic but the crowd only want to come and see him, there’s no one else. He packs it out whether it’s the first round or the final and he’s the only one that can do it. For me and for the game I look forward to when he’s back playing, it will be fantastic.
‘He’s the one that everyone wants to see and that includes myself. If I had to pay 20-30 quid to go and watch any snooker player it would be him, I wouldn’t want to watch anyone else.
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‘He’s the draw. Everything about him. Shots he goes for, breaks, charisma, he walks out of matches, he knocks in 147s, then he doesn’t go for them because the prize money isn’t enough. Everything about him is why everyone wants to watch him play. There’s no one in our game that’s even close to pulling the crowds like him. The money we play for now is down to the likes of him.’
Williams returns next week to the scene of one of his most enjoyable triumphs, when he beat O’Sullivan 10-5 in the final of the Tour Championship in Manchester last year.
‘I don’t beat him that often, he’s one of the ones that absolutely destroys me all the time really,’ he said. ‘But to win one in a final quite convincingly was obviously nice.’
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