NOT even a pep talk from his son could stop Mark Williams producing the worst performance of his season as he crashed out of the Dafabet Masters at Alexandra Palace, writes Charlie Bennett.

The Cwm cueman was losing 5-0 to Kyren Wilson when 10-year-old Kian came from the crowd to try and inspire his dad, but Wilson closed out a 6-1 win to reach the semi-finals.

Williams rolled back the years in his first-round match against world champion Mark Selby and it looked like he could launch a serious assault on the trophy and £200,000 prize.

But the two-time winner failed to reach those levels in a flat contest, where the highest break was only 76, and he was hugely frustrated with his display.

“It was poor, very poor,” he said. “I was not expecting to play like that. That was the way I had been playing for the last couple of years.

“Of this season, that is the worst I have played. I had a few chances but I couldn’t take them and I think if you ask Kyren he will say he did not play very well either.

“I made it far too easy for him. It is disappointing not to push on but it doesn’t make any difference – I will just drive home instead of staying until the semi-finals.

“I will just practice away and put this down to a bad day at the office.

“At 5-0 he was in the balls and I wanted him to clear up really, I didn’t want to be there.

“You know you are out but you have to try your best – but there was nothing there for me.”

Elsewhere, Ronnie O’Sullivan said he wants to quit snooker and insists he will miss this year’s World Championship to film his television show Hustle in Australia.

The five-time winner was dumped out of the Masters by Mark Allen and said he felt relieved he hadn’t reached the semi-finals after feeling ill all week.

“I know people did not take me seriously but I probably will miss this year’s World Championship,” he said.

“I come back to snooker for different reasons but it is a time-passer for me.

“I want to try and get out of snooker as quickly as I can. I play because I have some snooker fans that love to watch me play so I do a few tournaments.”

Watch the London Masters live on Eurosport and Eurosport Player with Colin Murray and analysis from Neil Robertson, Jimmy White and Neal Foulds