Mark Williams and Mark Selby dumped out of Welsh Open (From South Wales Argus)

Mark Williams and Mark Selby dumped out of Welsh Open

8:55pm Wednesday 13th February 2013 in Sport By Andrew Penman

CWM’S Mark Williams made a swift exit from the BetVictor Welsh Open snooker at the Newport Centre tonight.

The two-time world champion was beaten 4-1 by world number 26 Robert Milkins in under two hours.

Williams had spent the day in hospital as his wife is due to give birth and he looked distracted as he crashed out of his home tournament.

He will head back to hospital at 6am and expects boy number three to arrive during the day.

Breaks of 50 and 59 put Gloucester pro Milkins 2-0 up and he might have added the third frame, but missed the final brown and Williams took it on the blue.

Runs of 32 and 45 gave Milkins the fourth frame and he finished in style with an 87 to earn a last 16 match with Sam Baird tomorrow.

The shock defeat means Matthew Stevens is now the only Welshman left in the draw. He plays Stephen Maguire at 1.30pm tomorrow.

It was another day of shocks today as world number one Mark Selby was also beaten in the afternoon session.

Breaks of 74 and 111 helped Cambridgeshire cueman Joe Perry beat UK and Masters champion Selby 4-0.

“It has been a while since I played like that at a venue,” said a delighted Perry.

“I played Mark in Germany a couple of weeks ago, he beat me 5-2 and took every half chance that came his way. I knew I would have to play well today although I was surprised that he didn’t take his chances this time.

“These days, snooker is all about who plays best on the day, it’s not like years ago when you could predict most of the results.

"Age doesn't seem to be that much of a factor in snooker and there are massive opportunities if you believe in yourself, and I feel that my best years could still be ahead of me."

Graeme Dott scored a 4-2 victory over Fergal O'Brien with top breaks of 50, 63 and 68 to set up a match with Pankaj Advani.

Thursday's schedule: 10.30am – Tom Ford v Ken Doherty, Graeme Dott v Pankaj Advani; 1.30pm – Stephen Maguire v Matthew Stevens, Neil Robertson v Stuart Bingham; 2pm – Ding Junhui v Mark Allen, Judd Trump v Andrew Higginson; 7pm – Alan McManus v Joe Perry, Sam Baird v Robert Milkins