Snooker: 'Shocking' Mark Williams joins major casualties

The UK Championship in York has now lost four of the world's top 10 inside the opening round after a "shocking" Mark Williams last night became the latest big name to make an early exit.

The two-time winner looked horribly out of sorts against the granite-like Mark King, who made a polished sixth-frame 103, and duly lost 6-3, joining holder and world No 1 Judd Trump, the well-fancied Mark Allen and former champion Ding Junhui on the list of casualties.

"I was terrible. Shocking," Williams, the fifth-best in the world, said. "I felt all right going in but I couldn't pot three balls on the trot. The table was beautiful, there was a good crowd, everything you could want. It's getting boring for me to say how badly I am playing."

Williams, who lifted the trophy in 2000 and 2003, jokingly suggested he may retire and added: "I couldn't beat a man with no arms at the minute."