Williams set to meet O'Sullivan

Mark Williams set up a mouth-watering second-round Crucible clash with Ronnie O’Sullivan after completing victory over Liu Chuang.

Two-time former champion Williams was booed loudly by many in the crowd yesterday following his recent derogatory remarks about the Betfred.com World Championship venue, when he called for the tournament to be moved to China.

The heckles returned today as Williams entered the arena.

But the calls from the crowd appeared to be more pantomime than vengeful, and Williams had strong support as he turned a 6-3 lead from yesterday’s opening session into a 10-6 victory.

It rarely reached the levels of a serious contest against Liu, a player who beat Jimmy White and then Jamie Cope in the qualifying stage, as the champion of 2000 and 2003.

Only once Williams reached 9-3 did he stumble, and briefly it seemed a comeback was on when Liu won three consecutive frames, but the danger was soon averted.