HONG KONG, Aug 21: World champion and world number one Mark Williams made light of a two-month off-season break, easily disposing of Jimmy White in the preliminary round of the Euro-Asia Snooker Masters Challenge tournament here on Thursday.

Welshman Williams showed he had not lost the deft touch that earned him the 2003 World title last May at The Crucible Theatre in Sheffield as he defeated England’s White 2-0 in the abbreviated best-of-three frames pool A match.

His opponent in the final of the World Championship in May, world number six Irishman Ken Doherty, also showed fluid form in taking the first of his three preliminary round games beating Pakistan’s Shokat Ali 2-0 in a pool B match.

The other top-ranked player in the eight-strong event being held as part of Hong Kong’s post-SARS relaunch programme is Scot world number two Stephen Hendry.

The four European professionals are joined by Asia’s top-ranked player Marco Fu of Hong Kong, Thailand’s James Wattana, Chinese teenage prodigy Ding Junhui and Ali in the 70,000-pound (112,000-dollar) tournament.

Ding, last year’s Asian Games gold medalist, learned life at the top is harder with his 0-2 drubbing by White.—Reuters