HOPES of a home win in the 888 Zhenren Welsh Open are over for another year after Mark Williams and Matthew Stevens were both dumped out yesterday afternoon.

The Newport Centre crowd was anticipating a classic as Gwent ace Williams took on Ronnie O’Sullivan but the Rocket romped home 4-1 in just over an hour.

And shortly afterwards Carmarthen’s Stevens went down 4-2 to Glasgow’s Stephen Maguire to complete a miserable afternoon for the Welsh fans.

Despite a 133 clearance in the second frame, Williams was bitterly disappointed with his performance and didn’t hold back in the post-match press conference.

“How I’m number two I’ll never know.. The last two games have been awful,” said the double world champion from Cwm.

“It was terrible. It was embarrassing out there the balls I was missing. I wanted to snap the cue over my leg.

“I had a lot of chances, which is quite rare with Ronnie, but I played terrible again. Pitiful.

“I’m just not playing anywhere near the standard he’s playing,” he added.

“He’s the best player out there and if I was a betting man I’d chuck everything on him to win the World Championships.”

O’Sullivan was gracious in victory and his performance, which included breaks of 125 and 96, was all the more impressive as he revealed afterwards that he is still suffering the effects of glandular fever.

“Credit to Mark, he’s been a top performer this year making two finals out of the four ranking events we’ve played in,” he said.

“He’s probably been the best on the circuit the last two or three years, along with John Higgins and Judd Trump.

“He’s been playing brilliantly so you’ve got to forgive him the odd bad day and I’m sure he’ll come back stronger because that’s the way he is. That’s why he’s won so many tournaments over the years.

“I don’t know how far away I am from my best form,” he added. “I’m still under the weather. It started in early December and I haven’t been able to do any exercise for three or four weeks.

“The doctors put it down to stress and they told me to be careful.

“They didn’t expect me to be able to walk up the stairs so I just need to monitor myself.

“I’m doing as best as I can to reserve as much energy as possible.”

In contrast to his compatriot Williams, Stevens was happy with his form and insisted he had no regrets over a missed red along the cushion that handed victory to Maguire in frame six.

“I’m not too disappointed at all. I feel as if I’m playing well leading up to the World Championships,” said the world number 14.

“I’ve got no regrets. I play it every day of the week and if I’d played it safe and not got another chance I would have kicked myself.

“If it goes in it’s 3-3 but it wasn’t easy and I wobbled it.”

Also yesterday, Stephen Hendry crashed out 4-0 to Northern Ireland’s Mark Allen and Stephen Lee beat Tom Ford 4-1.