BBC pundits Mark Williams and Stephen Hendry shared playful banter during UK Championship coverage as they discussed Ronnie O’Sullivan’s quest for a record eighth World Championship title
Stephen Hendry and Mark Williams engaged in some friendly banter over Ronnie O’Sullivan’s drive to clinch an eighth World Championship. Currently, O’Sullivan is tied with Hendry on seven titles, and Williams believes that surpassing this should be his goal if only to go above Hendry.
Williams, who is part of the famous class of 92 alongside John Higgins and O’Sullivan, doesn’t believe the latter when he says that chasing down Hendry is not on his radar.
“I think his motivation is just winning,” he commented while on punditry duty for the BBC prior to O’Sullivan’s UK Championship match against Zhou Yuelong.
“Even though he says he doesn’t want to overtake his [Hendry’s] record for world championships, he does. That is his main aim and I think I would like to see him do it just to pass him to be honest,” sparking laughter from the crowd.
In response, Hendry playfully pretended to smack the back of Williams’ head before retorting with a witty quip of his own. Just prior to that, the pair were branded as the Chuckle Brothers, which saw Hendry look directly at the camera and shake his head.
Speaking about Mark Selby, he got his own back on Williams, saying: “He is probably the best Mark that plays snooker at the moment on tour.” The crowd at York Barbican erupted into laughter as Williams turned around and threw his arms up, acknowledging Hendry’s clever comeback.
O’Sullivan has previously stated that he no longer views himself as one of the top players and is not that bothered about claiming another world title.
“Everybody talks about the eighth world title,” he told Daily Star Sport when asked about his motivation. “I’ve never really been bothered by that.
“But I think at this stage in my career, I’ve probably got a good three or four attempts at it. Instead of just saying, ‘I’m going to go for one world title’, I probably set myself to get two.
“Because I think if you aim for two, you’ll probably get one. But if I aim for one, I probably wouldn’t get one at all.
“Two would be great, but in the back of my mind, I think there’s a chance to get one to make it eight. I do think that’s probably the only thing that motivates me.
“Not that it motivates me, but if there is something that I think the fans and the snooker world would like to see, they’d like to see someone be out on their own with eight world championships.”
He is due to compete against Zhou Yuelong in the round of 32 at the UK Championship, with the hope of joining Ding Junhui, Zhao Xintong and Zhang Anda, who have already secured their places in the next round. Scott Donaldson also made waves by defeating Mark Allen on the third day to progress.
Donaldson triumphed over the Northern Irishman with a score of 6-1, a surprising feat considering he was trailing 5-0 in the qualifiers before making a remarkable comeback. The victory comes just months after the loss of his father, Hector.
Understandably, Donaldson was visibly moved as he approached the table for his match on Monday evening. Welshman Williams, meanwhile, faces Pang Junxu in his second round after his opening-round 6-4 victory over David Gilbert.
