He may be halfway to 100, but snooker ace Mark Williams is still competing at the top of his game. Williams, 50, has got all the way to the quarter-finals of the World Snooker Championship, having seen off Iran’s Hossein Vafaei and China’s Yize Wu at the Crucible.
He was pushed all the way by Wu but managed to overcome the talented 21-year-old 10-8 to book a place in the last eight. In his first World Championship quarter-final since 2021, he faces John Higgins, who at 49 years old, is another veteran.
It is a tie that promises an almighty battle, featuring lots of incredible snooker. With Williams still competing at the Crucible, Mirror Sport takes a deeper look into his career.
Williams has been battling with worsening eyesight, recently admitting that his “eyes had completely gone” and that his vision had “deteriorated quite badly” in the past six months.
Despite these challenges, Williams is determined to keep playing and is scheduled for surgery in the summer to address his vision problems, which he hopes will add years to his illustrious snooker career.
In a candid chat with the BBC, Williams confessed: “I’m seeing about three or four [balls] at a time. I’ve tried playing with contacts but it’s very difficult and really uncomfortable in my eyes.
“I’m booked in on 12 June, I think, to get a lens replacement. If everything goes OK, hopefully that could prolong my career for another four or five years. That’s what I’m hoping anyway.”
Williams, who last clinched the world title in 2018, is not just chasing the glory of another championship – there’s also the hefty financial incentive, with the winner pocketing an estimated £500,000.
The Welshman has already amassed significant prize money throughout his career. Although his exact net worth is hard to pin down, estimates from casino.org last year suggest it’s around £7.1m.
This was taking into account all prize money he has amassed over his long career, any investments he has bought into with those funds and any sponsorship deals that have come his way.
His wife Joanne, who will be rooting for him during the tournament, also earns a decent income as a successful entrepreneur. Since tying the knot in 2011, Jo has been the proud proprietor of travel company Maximum Travel since 2019.
Despite her husband’s fame, she tends to keep a low profile but occasionally shares updates on Instagram under the handle @travelpro.jo. Mark and Jo are parents to three sons. Their eldest, Conor, was born in April 2004, followed by Kian in 2007. Their youngest son, Joel, was born in 2013.
At Reach and across our entities we and our partners use information collected through cookies and other identifiers from your device to improve experience on our site, analyse how it is used and to show personalised advertising. You can opt out of the sale or sharing of your data, at any time clicking the “Do Not Sell or Share my Data” button at the bottom of the webpage. Please note that your preferences are browser specific. Use of our website and any of our services represents your acceptance of the use of cookies and consent to the practices described in our Privacy Notice and Cookie Notice.
