Snooker star apologizes to opponent 10 times and branded a ‘lucky t**t’ | Other | Sport

Mark Williams has revealed that Ding Junhui was very apologetic after taking advantage of his luck to knock the Welshman out of the Masters.

He ended up on the wrong side of a dramatic 6-5 defeat, dropping the final two frames. Ding was fortunate to leave his opponent in some difficult positions as a result of his own mistakes, allowing himself to claim the spoils.

In the penultimate frame, he cleaned up after smashing into the pack of reds, before another mishap in the decisive final frame had the same result.

It left Williams feeling hard done by and the 49-year-old told Eurosport: “I don’t usually say this but I think the only reason I lost today was the ball.

“He had so much run throughout the game. I’ve had it myself before, but that was as much run of the ball for a long time as anyone has had against me.

“I was 5-4 up, he’s butchered a long red, smashing them all over the place and I’m at nothing. Last frame he’s butchered one again, left me in trouble and cleaned up again.”

Williams later told the BBC: “I lost count of how many times he put his hand up to me to say sorry. He must have done it 10 or 11 times. Good luck to him. He made two big breaks. After the break , none of us can play much better than that.”

After the match, Williams playfully branded Ding a ‘lucky t**t’ on social media as he reflected on his own misfortune in the final two pictures.

In his own unique way of spelling, he wrote: “Well played Ding u lucky t**t. What a reception to go in, venue great, great crowd, played well, geat comp, see you next year fingers crossed. #luckisooxed.”

Alan McManus, the former Masters champion, said in Eurosport commentary that he felt sorry for Williams, but noted that Ding also suffered bad luck at times.

“I agree with him in some respects,” McManus said. “The race that was going on out there was on Ding’s side of the fence.

“But there was a frame where he played a safety shot and gets cover on the brown, Mark that is, and he won the frame on the back of that. All’s fair in love and snooker, as we say. It cuts both ways. “