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As everyone knows, Mark Williams is very relaxed about winning or losing snooker games. He can only think of two failures in his entire career that made him frustrated, although there are other things that have honed the Welshman’s skills in the game. gear.

The 46-year-old three-time world champion is still leading the sport, winning the British Open this season and in the process raised his ranking to 24th.

He will return to the championship next week because he wants to add this title to his collection, but when he does, he will try to get rid of Covid and gout.

Having missed the British Open and the European Masters due to a positive test, Williams has been fighting the virus. Although he is getting better, his old enemy gout threatens to strike again.

"I am much better now," Williams told Metro.co.uk of his Covid fight. 'The taste is slowly recovering. I lay in bed for five or six days, shaking all over.

"Hopefully I will be better by Tuesday (when he is against Neil Robertson), fingers crossed. If it were last week, I would have eaten it.

'I think the gout is back! I take these pills again. Usually you get it, can't walk and take these pills for two or three days, then it disappears. I just felt that my ankle was about to move again, so I started taking pills just in case.

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"They said to try to eat healthier, but I ate for two or three weeks before becoming a vegetarian, so it was strange. I am eating meat again. They said not to drink too much alcohol, but I really don’t drink that now. Too much. I don't want it anymore, because it kills people.

After some impressive performances at the beginning of the season, the Welsh potting machine was hit by illness and injury at an irritating moment. He also performed well late last season as he won the WST Pro Series and entered The Crucible quarter-finals.

"I won a [champion] last year, I won one this year, and I played very well," he said. "When I played some very good things, I unfortunately got gout and Covid.

"Even with gout, I have one goal away from defeating John Higgins 4-0 (at the Northern Ireland Open). I should have won a quarter. Then who knows?

"When I had some good momentum, I missed two games because of Covid, and now I have to start from the beginning and regain this momentum. This is a weird one.

Williams always said that losing had no effect on him, and even his old rival Higgins, who led 3-0 in Belfast before losing the game 4-3, did not make him panic.

"To be honest, I missed a consecutive red win 4-0," he said. 'Red and black, it's easy. Losing, shook his hand.

"I don't know why people don't believe me, it doesn't bother me at all. The commentator said, "Oh, that will hurt for a while. "What hurt? How can you get hurt? You just lost a snooker game, man, for God's sake.

After turning professional in 1992, Williams never seemed to be annoyed by failure, and when he was pushed, he would think of one or two "ridiculed" examples.

"The only thing that impressed me was that I lost to Ali Carter in the UK. I think it was in Telford (quarter-finals in 2008). The score was 8-8. I was on the ball and I was on the ball. The biggest kick on the red ball won 9-8, but it was missed," Williams explained.

"That was the only game I remember driving home. I don't think I spoke to my teammate Matthew on the way home. I drove home at a ridiculous speed.

"I was still very angry the next morning. It was the only game in 30 years where I really remembered being left out.

"Maybe there are one or two, but I don’t remember. Wait, someone came to me and played 4-4 with Paul Davison to qualify for an event last season [German Master Match].

"He fouled the yellow card. I was sitting behind him. It was blatant. I told the referee that he was a yellow card there. She said: "How do you know? "Well, I was sitting behind it. I asked them if they could check, and they said no. I was a little angry with that, but just because of the way it happened.

"About a few weeks later he came to me to apologize and said it was a foul, but he didn't see it at the time because he was turning, and so on." That time passed long ago. If he said bluntly afterwards, you know what I would say. Losing makes no difference to me, but it is blatant.

"I can't argue too much, because if the referees didn't see it, they didn't see it. However, it was a rare occasion, and in a 30-year career, not many games would be disturbed.

When asked whether this was the experience of a gray veteran playing or his natural character, Williams said: "I have always had this attitude.

"When I play, no one will work harder than me. But once it is over, I will shake hands, nothing more.

It's hard to disturb Mark at the snooker table, but he hopes to see some changes and suggests to reduce the number of professional players on the tour, and it is best to give some bonuses to the losers in the first round.

Because amateur players compete in every game, and the first-round loser has nothing to do with the bill, Williams prefers smaller and more sustainable professional tournaments.

"Don't let me start recharging," he said. "If you lose in the last round of Q School, you have the best of both worlds. Every professional event, every amateur, if you are 40 years old, so are all senior citizens. How fair is this?

"I think it would be better. If you need to recharge, please remove it from the Q School list, but they can only get one activity. You can’t let people join as rechargers in every activity, so that they will try to make a living Professionals are eliminated. In my opinion, if they don’t pass Q School, they shouldn’t be involved. They can hold an event. Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t think it’s fair.

'More than half of the tournament must be skinny. You have to make a lot of money in the later stages, and there are not many players who can do this. It's usually the same every time, so it's hard to make a living.

"In any case, you will never get 128 players in a tournament, so I will cancel the tour because it is too big and I am not sure how many people are. Once you participate in the tour, I hope everyone can make a living, Including paying the losers in the first round.

'The motivation is to participate in the tour, once you participate in the world professional tour, you should have a living security. You don’t have to worry about losing. Life will be harder, but then everyone can make a living.

Even though the current tour has 128 players, Williams does not understand why a slight reorganization cannot be made to provide bonuses in the first round.

"For example, in the first round of the British Championship, £6,500, changed to £5,000, and the loser gets £1,500. Will it do any harm? I prefer that. This relieves the pressure on the lower-ranked boys.

"I don't understand why they don't do this. It seems easy. The World Championship is 10,000 pounds or nothing. What is the harm of 7,000 pounds and 3,000 pounds or 8,000 pounds and 2,000 pounds, there must be a reason, otherwise they will do it.

"I don't understand what kind of reward this is for someone who helps them pay their bills. But I do think the tour is too big. When was the last time we didn't recharge in the event?

In recent years, Williams has changed his way of breaking through the frame, choosing to roll into the Red Army from the top cushion instead of the traditional breakthrough.

At first, someone called for a ban on defensive shooting, and even sent an email to the players asking if it should be allowed. Then many players saw its benefits and copied the move, which made the Welsh people happy.

Mark said: "I was [laughing] because I thought it was sad that we received an email about banning it." "I didn't do anything wrong.

'Then John Higgins did it, Ronio Sullivan did it, and 10 or more of them were doing it. You will soon get tired of leaving long reds!

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"I don't do that now, but if the table is playing so you can't fall behind the green, I will go back and roll to a pile. This is just an interruption, you know, pfft. Out of stock is forbidden!

'who is he? I just stopped like that, he has a hump, you can tell from his face. I don't remember who it was, but I beat him 4-0. If it annoys people, it makes you want to do more. The more people talk about banning it, the more I do it.

"You can't tell Ronnie not to smash the backpack. They tried to ban me from interrupting the game. I haven't received an email from World Snooker about smashing the game. They must be very happy with that.

Williams is of course willing to change the game, support Judd Trump's call for a modern dress code, and consider the possibility of hosting a world championship elsewhere than the crucible.

"I always thought that one day they would move from there, and it would surpass the crucible," Mark said.

'I can understand why people think this is good for tradition, and it is so. But I just think this is a big tournament, if you spread it, it can generate more money, such as the [FIFA] World Cup.

"Even if it does start from there, the Crucible must hold a game because when it falls to a table, it is one of the best venues you can participate in."

In terms of snooker's dress code, the veteran is willing to make changes to try to attract the younger generation, although he admits that players should not be constrained by their own equipment.

Williams said: "I read what Judd said, and I think he was right." "Listen, my career is coming to an end, whether you are wearing a T-shirt, Dickie Bows or shorts, this is for me It doesn't make any difference, I don't care. But when he said to involve young people, he made sense.

"Young players, they don’t want to see Judd Trump wearing a Dickie bow. They would rather see him in his own clothes or something. I think it gives you your own identity. We have to attract young people very quickly. , Because the amateur games I have seen are currently in poor condition.

"We [in my club] have a few children, but it’s nothing compared to when I was a kid. The Welsh Junior Championships, my goodness, you have a lot of entries, and now I heard that there are five or six entries in the Junior Championships. . This is very worrying. But now it is difficult to get people into the snooker club, play X-box, and play football outside. It is very difficult.

"I don't think Shoot Out T-shirts look bad, I think they look smart. I want to tell people that they can wear their own clothes is cunning, I may not be the smartest person to appear in sportswear.

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