Snooker: Williams looks for riches and revenge

Money may be Mark Williams' main motivation. But when he meets Paul Hunter in the opening semi-final of the Benson & Hedges Masters at Wembley today, the Welshman will also have another driving force.

Hunter recovered from 5-0 down to beat Williams 10-9 in last year's final, and Williams said after a superb 6-3 victory over John Higgins yesterday: "It would be nice to get my own back on Paul. But I have got a good record against him. I don't think that counts for much – but I'm sure he will be thinking more about it than me."

Williams, who is easily the most consistent performer on the circuit this season, is guaranteed to collect at least £50,000 prize after a victory that contained the 150th and 151st century breaks of his profitable career. The Welshman added: "Some players may talk about lifting trophies – but at the end of the day I am just looking for the big, fat cheques. It's as simple as that, and here we are playing for a cheque for £210,000."

Williams bulldozed Higgins in the penultimate quarter-final, knocking in breaks of 45, 54, 103 and 45 again after Higgins had taken the first frame. Higgins reduced his arrears to 5-3 with back-to-back breaks of 101 and 117. But it was too little too late, and Williams polished off the match with exactly 100.

Higgins could do worse than seek some outside guidance to help him,to overcome his current problems. The former world champion and world No 1 is a shadow of the player that captured four major titles last season.

"I'm struggling for confidence," he said."I had chances to win a couple of the early frames but couldn't take them. Mark played well after that, and I didn't get a look in until it was probably too late."