SHEFFIELD,(England), April 25: Wales’ Mark Williams completed the last 16 line up at the World Snooker Championships with a 10-2 first round thrashing of England’s Stuart Pettman at the Crucible Theatre here on Thursday.

Left-hander Williams, the 2000 champion and current provisional world number one, dominated the match after losing the first frame.

Williams, holder of the UK and Benson and Hedges Masters titles, has now won a record 46 successive opening matches in ranking events, a mark he said would take some beating.

“If someone had told me I would go five years without losing my opening game, I wouldn’t have believed them,” Williams said.

“It makes a change to have a record Stephen Hendry doesn’t hold,” the 28-year-old joked.

Williams faces Australia’s Quinten Hann on Sunday for a place in the quarter-finals in a repeat of their fiery 1998 encounter which the Welsh cueist, who had squandered a 9-4 lead, eventually won 10-9 on the final black.

Afterwards Williams accused Hann’s supporters of rowdy behaviour and he said on Thursday: “There is a bit of friction between us. But I don’t worry about that stuff anymore. Whoever beats me, good luck to them.“Besides, I don’t play the person - I play the balls.”

Results (completed matches only, x denotes seed):

1st rd (best of 19 frames):

Paul Hunter (ENG x9) bt Ali Carter (ENG x24) 10-5; Frame scores (Hunter first): 103-23, 70-55, 81-0, 86-25, 69-62, 68-54, 135-1, 83-37, 44-54, 62-16, 40-75, 17-61, 1-126, 0-65, 106-19; Mark Williams (WAL x3) bt Stuart Pettman (ENG x29) 10-2; Frame scores (Williams first): 30-59, 80-0, 76-35, 61-26, 77-13, 43-65, 100-0, 77-14, 55-15, 78-47, 102-4, 68-32 —AFP