Snooker ace Mark Williams has big decision to make as he admits fears over eyesight surgery

Speaking after his 10-4 round one victory over debutant Antoni Kowalski on Sunday night at the 2026 World Snooker Championship, the Welshman provided an update on eye issues that have been hampering his game over the past few years.

On the baize for his 28th Crucible outing, the three-time world champion had to share the opening six frames of his opening round encounter with 22-year-old Kowalski, who was making history as the first Polish player to star on snooker's grandest stage.

But Williams took seven of the next eight frames - highlighted by an effort of 115 - to secure a comfortable passage into the last 16 in Sheffield.

In recent times, Williams has described the issues that he has been having with his eyesight - obviously a big problem for someone who plays the precision sport of snooker.

The Welshman has been on a waiting list for some time to have lens replacement surgery, put he continues putting the procedure off whilst he is still performing well, and near the top of the world rankings.

Last season, Williams reached the final of snooker's two most lucrative ranking events. He was within a few pots of winning the inaugural Saudi Arabia Masters, and he became the oldest-ever World Championship finalist, being denied the Crucible crown by Asia’s first winner of the blue riband prize, Zhao Xintong.

Earlier this term, Williams created history in becoming the oldest-ever ranking event champion after defeating Shaun Murphy in the final to win the 2025 Xi'an Grand Prix. It saw him overtake fellow countryman Ray Reardon's previous benchmark that had stood for over 40 years.

And whilst these sort of results keep coming, Williams is reluctant to risk the surgery in fear of anything going wrong.

Speaking to the press at the Crucible after his victory over Kowalski, Williams described his eyesight as "getting worse, getting worse by the year".

Williams said: “I'm definitely going to have it done 100%, I just can't bring myself to do it whilst I'm still in the top five or six in the world, still winning ranking tournaments at 51.

"What do I do? I mean, I know it's probably a safe procedure, but I don't know, the balls to go through with it I suppose, you know, because if it did go wrong, that's the end.”

Specifically waiting for lens replacement surgery, the 27-time ranking event winner explained that he has tried using contact lenses but "just couldn't get on with them".

For the time being, though, it seems like Williams is going to keep things as they are, until he has no choice to have the procedure done.

"I'll stick with them for the time being and then it's going to come to a stage where I have no choice to have it done. And then I'm happy with that because if I have no choice and got to get it done, then I have to get it done.

"I mean, I'm not like going blind or nothing like that. I mean, it's just when I'm playing and they're passed two or three foot I see like two or maybe three reds at a time especially long ones - it's like, sometimes, I just say 'hit the one in the middle'".

Williams' next engagement at the 2026 World Snooker Championship is a round two clash with number 11 seed Barry Hawkins across Thursday and Friday. Elsewhere in the same quarter of the draw are Kyren Wilson and Mark Allen - a stacked section that now exclusively consists of seeded players.

To view the full draw, results, schedule, and other information from the 2026 World Snooker Championship, visit our tournament information centre here.