Williams slide continues

Mark Williams suffered another early exit from a major event in the Malta Cup in Portomaso tonight to leave his coveted top 16 place hanging in the balance.

Williams was beaten 5-1 by Australian Neil Robertson as he suffered his fifth defeat from six matches this season.

The Welshman, world champion in 2000 and 2003, started the season as world number two but has slipped to 14th in the provisional standings and is likely to fall further as a result of his latest first round defeat.

If he does not improve by April’s Embassy World Championship he faces the prospect of having to qualify for many of next season’s tournaments.

But Williams could hardly have drawn a tougher opponent. Robertson, 22, beat Jimmy White and John Higgins on his way to the Welsh Open quarter-finals last month and is widely regarded as a future champion.

“Neil played very well and deserved to win,” Williams said.

“I don’t want to talk about my performance except to say I couldn’t compete with him. He was just too good for me.

“I’m always hopeful but there are no signs that things will turn around at the moment.”

Robertson, a quarter-finalist in Malta last year, made two breaks of 72 and one of 78 during a confident display to claim another big scalp.

“I’m chalking these top players off my list,” he joked afterwards. “I played really well. It’s not that Mark made many errors, it’s just that I was scoring heavily and knocking in the long balls.

“In the last year I’ve improved a great deal. I’ve picked a lot up by watching some of the top players on television.

“I’m trying to play in the same style as Ronnie O’Sullivan and Stephen Maguire and build breaks the way they do.”

Robertson plays the winner of tomorrow’s first round match between Jimmy White and Robert Milkins.

Stephen Maguire defeated Joe Swail to get the defence of his title underway but admitted he had almost thrown the match away.

Maguire, who beat Jimmy White 9-3 in last year’s final, looked certain to wrap up a 5-3 victory when he needed just the blue to claim the eighth frame.

But the 23-year-old Scot missed and Northern Ireland number one Swail cleared to the black to force a decider.

It proved to be an edgy final frame before reigning UK champion Maguire eventually potted the last red from distance and cleared to the blue to edge through a relieved 5-4 winner.

“I’ve handed Joe a match in the world championship before and it looked like I was going to do the same here,” said Maguire, beaten 10-9 by Swail from 9-6 up in the world qualifiers five years ago.

“After all the years I’ve been playing the game I should have learned that the ball that’s important is the one you need to win.

“But I got down and went for the blue without thinking about it and it nearly cost me the match. To get through is a massive result for me.”

Maguire’s fellow Scot Stephen Hendry had no such worries as he booked his last 16 place – and a meeting with Nottingham’s Anthony Hamilton – with a 5-1 victory over Kent’s Barry Hawkins.

Mike Dunn, the world number 58 from Redcar, reached the last 16 of a ranking for the first time by whitewashing David Gray, the UK Championship runner-up, 5-0.