Mark James Williams (born 21March 1975) is a Welsh professional snooker player. He has won 27 ranking titles, placing him sixth on the all-time list. He has won three World Championships, two UK Championships, and two Masters for a total of seven Triple Crown titles. He has been ranked world number one on three occasions.
Williams turned professional in the 1992–93 season, as did Ronnie O'Sullivan and John Higgins; the three players are collectively known as the "Class of '92". He won the Masters in 1998 and the UK Championship in 1999, and in 2000 became the first left-handed player to win the world title. In 2002–03, the most successful season of his career, he won the UK Championship, the Masters and the World Championship, becoming the third player, after Steve Davis and Stephen Hendry, to win all three Triple Crown events in one season. His form then declined, and he dropped out of the elite top 16 after the 2007–08 season, although he regained his place for 2009–10. After winning the 2011 German Masters, he went more than six years without a ranking title, until he won the 2017 Northern Ireland Open. In the same season, one of the best of his career, he also won the 2018 German Masters and a third world title at the 2018 World Championship.
Williams has made more than 700 century breaks in professional competition, including three maximums. At 50, he became the oldest World Championship finalist in 2025. Later that year, he won the 2025 Xi'an Grand Prix aged 50 years and 206 days to become the oldest winner of a ranking event, breaking the 43-year-old record of 50 years and 14 days set by Ray Reardon at the 1982 Professional Players Tournament. He also became the first player to have won professional titles in his teens, 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s. He was appointed MBE in the 2004 Birthday Honours and was inducted into the World Snooker Tour Hall of Fame in 2012.
Career
Early career Williams was born in Cwm, near Ebbw Vale, in the Welsh county of Gwent (now the county borough of Blaenau Gwent). He started playing snooker at an early age and won his first junior event when he was eleven years old; it was then that he decided to pursue a career as a snooker player. He scored his first century break when he was thirteen and had achieved his first maximum break by the time he was eighteen. As a schoolboy, he was also an amateur boxer but gave it up after being defeated. His father was a coal miner, and as a teenager, Williams did a 12-hour shift down a mine.
In January 1991, Williams reached the final of the junior event at the World Masters but lost 1–6 to John Higgins. Later that year, he defeated Higgins 4–0 to win the British title. Williams was one of 173 players who all turned professional in 1992. He finished his first season ranked 119th out of 595 professional players; the rankings were based on results over two seasons, and Williams was one of only four first-season professionals to be ranked within the top 128. Three years later, he had entered the top 16 in the world rankings.
His first ranking tournament win came in January 1996, when he won the Welsh Open title, beating John Parrott 9–3 in the final. He failed to qualify for the 1996 World Championship but in October 1996 he won the first ranking event of the new season, the Grand Prix, defeating surprise finalist Euan Henderson 95. He won the British Open in April 1997, beating Stephen Hendry 9–2 in the final. At the 1997 World Championship, he was drawn against his coach Terry Griffiths, who was making his last appearance at the Crucible as a participant. Williams eventually defeated Griffiths 10–9 on the black, but he then lost 813 to Hendry in the last 16. He took his first Masters title in February 1998, defeating Hendry 10–9 in the final, which ended in a in the , after Williams had recovered from 6–9 down. He reached the semi-finals of the 1998 World Championship, losing 14–17 to Ken Doherty. The following year, he made it through to the final of the 1999 World Championship and finished the tournament as runner-up to Hendry, losing the final 1118.
1999–2005 Williams had a very successful 1999–00 season, winning both the UK Championship and the World Championship. These results, along with another ranking title at the 2000 Thailand Masters and three runner-up positions, allowed him to capture the world number one position for the first time. At the UK Championship in November 1999, he defeated Hendry 9–6 in the semi-final before beating his fellow countryman Matthew Stevens 10–8 in the final. In the 2000 World Championship final, he recovered from 7–13 behind against Stevens to eventually win 1816. Williams was the first left-handed player to win the World Championship at The Crucible. He also produced a notable comeback in his semi-final match against Higgins, coming from 10–14 down to win 17–15.
He won only one ranking event in the 2000–01 season—the 2000 Grand Prix—with a 9–5 victory over Ronnie O'Sullivan in the final. He was a runner-up in two other ranking events: the 2000 UK Championship, where he lost 4–10 to Higgins in the final; and the 2000 China Open, where he was beaten 3–9 by O'Sullivan. This was enough for him to retain his number one world ranking, although his title defence at the 2001 World Championship ended in the second round with a 12–13 defeat to Joe Swail. In the 2001–02 season, Williams struggled to find his best form from previous seasons and again won only one ranking tournament—the 2002 China Open—where he defeated Anthony Hamilton 9–8 from 5–8 down in the final. However, he was then defeated by Hamilton 9–13 in the second round of the 2002 World Championship and subsequently lost the number one world ranking to O'Sullivan.
The 2002–03 season was exceptional for Williams as he won all three Triple Crown events: the 2002 UK Championship, 2003 Masters and the 2003 World Championship. He was only the fourth player after Stephen Hendry, Steve Davis and John Higgins to hold the three titles simultaneously, and only the third player after Davis and Hendry to have won them all in one season. These results enabled him to reclaim the number one spot at the end of the season. He became just the second player, after Ray Reardon, to reclaim the number one ranking position. He beat Doherty 10–9 in the UK Championship final, and he beat Hendry 10–4 in the Masters final. Before the 2003 World Championship, he had a scare when his cue was damaged and bent on his flight with Ryanair on his way to play in the Irish Masters, but he had it repaired before the tournament. He had a relatively untroubled route to the 2003 World Championship final, with wins over Stuart Pettman 10–2, Quinten Hann 13–2, Hendry 13–7 and Stephen Lee 17–8. In the final against Doherty, he developed a 10–2 lead and appeared to be heading for an emphatic victory, before Doherty fought back to tie the match 16–16. Williams regained his composure to win the last two frames and lift the world trophy for the second time.
The following season, he lost in the first round of the 2003 UK Championship to Fergal O'Brien, ending his record run of 48 tournaments in which he had won his first match. In February 2004, he was unable to defend his title at the Masters; after defeating Stevens in the first round, he then lost a close match to Paul Hunter 5–6 in the quarter-finals. His title defence at the 2004 World Championship ended with an 11–13 defeat in the second round to Joe Perry. He endured a run of poor form over the 2004–05 season, including a first-round defeat to Jimmy White at the Masters where he lost 5–6. On 20 April 2005, at the World Championship, Williams became the first Welshman and the fifth player in history to score a maximum break at the Crucible in the World Championship. This came in the final frame of a 10–1 first-round victory over Robert Milkins, winning him £161,000 in prize money, but he then lost in the second round to Ian McCulloch 12–13.
2006–2009 On 26 March 2006, Williams won the 16th ranking event of his career, and his first in two and a half years—the 2006 China Open in Beijing—defeating Higgins 9–8 in the final. The victory helped Williams retain his place in the world rankings. He also performed well at the 2006 World Championship, beating Hamilton 10–1 and Mark Selby 13–8 to set up a quarter-final clash with O'Sullivan. It was the first time the two had met in a match at the Crucible, and their well-publicised rivalry brought some extra tension to the encounter (although O'Sullivan has since said that the former feud has been replaced by friendship and mutual respect). In a closely contested match, O'Sullivan eventually won 13–11. It was revealed during the 2005–06 season that Williams and his coach Griffiths had parted company.
Williams won the Pot Black trophy in September 2006. In the final against Higgins, he compiled a century break of 119 which was the highest break in the history of the tournament. However, 2006–07 turned out to be perhaps the worst season of his career, as he lost his first match in a string of tournaments, including the 2007 Masters where he was whitewashed 0–6 by Neil Robertson, and the 2007 World Championship where he lost 9–10 to Swail.
At the 2007 UK Championship, some of his previous form returned as he defeated Ricky Walden 9–3 in the last 32, before facing Mark Allen in the last 16; after trailing 0–4 and 1–5, Williams produced a comeback to win eight successive frames for a 9–5 victory. His run ended in the quarter-finals, where he lost to Stephen Maguire 5–9.
After a 2–6 first-round loss to Doherty at the 2008 Masters, Williams revealed that he was considering retirement from the game if he dropped out of the top 32 and was forced to play in the qualifying competitions, although he was then only 32 years old. He later commented that the statement had been blown out of proportion, and that he intended to remain on the professional circuit. He began to show more consistency for the remainder of the season, reaching the last 16 of three ranking events as well as a run to the quarter-finals of the 2008 China Open, where a 3–5 loss to Ryan Day deprived him of a place in his first semi-final for two years. He was defeated 7–13 by O'Sullivan in the second round of the 2008 World Championship, which forced him out of the world's top 16 and pushed him into the qualifiers for the next season. It was announced on 8 July 2008 that Williams had split from his management company 110 Sport, as O'Sullivan and Maguire had done previously.
In the 2008–09 season, he suffered three qualifying defeats but also reached the quarter-finals of the 2008 UK Championship, where he beat both Selby and Graeme Dott 9–7, before narrowly losing 8–9 to Ali Carter. He qualified for the 2009 World Championship but lost 7–10 to Hendry after leading 7–5. Towards the end of the match, Williams was hampered by having problems with his .
2009–2013 The 2009–10 season started badly for Williams when he broke his wrist in a fall at home less than a month before the 2009 Shanghai Masters, which was the first ranking event of the season. He played in Shanghai despite the injury, losing in the second round 15 against Higgins. He reached the semi-finals of the 2009 Grand Prix, where after making a 142 century break (the highest of the tournament) he was defeated 16 by Ding Junhui. He was leading Dott 62 at the 2009 UK Championship when Dott retired due to illness. Williams then lost 89 against Peter Lines in the last 16. At the 2010 Masters, he won in the first round 63 against Carter to progress to the quarter-finals, despite being involved in a traffic accident the day before the match. It was reported that someone had driven into the back of the car that was carrying Williams and Hendry to a restaurant. He was then narrowly defeated 56 by O'Sullivan in the semi-finals.