Mark J Williams, John Higgins and Ronnie O’ Sullivan can win world championship: Stephen Maguire
Stephen Maguire thinks that Mark J Williams’ chances for winning his third World Cup Championship this time are very bright.
The former British champion says that the world championship revolves around three names and Williams is one of them, the others being Ronnie O’ Sullivan and John Higgins.
Williams has won the world championship twice before – in 2000 and 2003 – and is the current world number two. He has recently won the German Masters before losing to Stephen Maguire in the quarterfinal of the Welsh Open by a frame score of 5-3.
A few years ago, Williams had dropped to number 47 in world rankings, but has made a tremendous comeback. The Welsh potting machine also had a chance in the Welsh Open to surpass John Higgins, the reigning world number one, but the Scotsman ended his hopes
at the Newport.
Maguire said that when in form, Williams could always be up there.
Williams has beaten his opponents by such mind boggling scores as four-frames-to-nil before reaching the quarters. He said losing in the quarterfinal being the world number 2 is not bad. He was looking to keep his consecutive second ranking title win.
Looking at the two other contenders Maguire pointed out to – John Higgins and Ronnie O’ Sullivan.
Both John Higgins and Ronnie O’Sullivan have lifted the world snooker championship trophy three times whereas Williams has been able to lift it only twice. Higgins, however, looks tougher than O’ Sullivan.
John Higgins, the world number one snooker player, beat Mark J Williams last time in the UK Championship 2010 by a frame score of 10-9 after making a great comeback. Recently, he won the Welsh Open for the second time in a row when he beat Stephen Maguire
by a frame score of 9-6 after he was 3-5 behind by the end of the first session.
As far as O’ Sullivan is concerned, there is no doubt that when he starts playing, he is unstoppable. However, for a while now, he has not been in the best of his form. He has been in several controversies. Also for the first time in 17 years, he has fallen
to number 10 in the world rankings. The reason for his decline is his absentees from the tournaments as he has missed 12 tournaments due to illness and family issues. In the last four tournaments he played, he lost three in the very first round. We can hope
Ronnie comes up with a good fighting spirit this time.
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