Williams adds a dash of colour!

Mark Williams is one the most colourful characters in the World Snooker circuit today. The heavily tattooed southpaw, a two-time world champion, is a phenomenal gallery player, hardly missing a chance to draw laughs from the audience with his theatrics and mannerisms even when under the gun.

Trailing 2-3 against Aditya Mehta in the Indian Open last-16 encounter on Thursday when the game was poised on a knife’s edge with just the final three colour balls remaining and the black ball delicately hanging on the mouth of the top-left corner pocket, Williams sought a toilet break in animated fashion that had the everyone, including his opponent, in raptures.

That is exactly who Williams is. The first left-hander to win the coveted world championship in 2000 and repeat the feat three years later, Williams is a true all-rounder having made the switch from a sport as brutal as boxing to something as serene and gentlemanly as snooker.

“Too many punches in the nose!” gushed Williams while reasoning his migration from boxing to snooker. “I used to do both but when I was 16 years old, I received too many punches and decided to shift to snooker. I still like boxing and watch it most of the times,” added the Welshman whose favourite pugilist is the cocky Floyd Mayweather.

Williams, who has won 18 ranking titles and became the fifth player to score the maximum 147 at the temple of snooker -- the Crucible -- had had a disappointing last two years where he has failed to register a single victory. That prompted talks of retirement which the 38-year-old quickly rubbished.

“I never said I wanted to go away from the sport and it was the English journalists who made up that story. You say something and they put something different in the paper.

Obviously it is getting tougher, I got three kids and it is not easy travelling always, to China, India for weeks together. Fifteen years ago I didn’t have any kids and I loved travelling. It is getting difficult for me now. I’ll enjoy it as long I keep playing.”