Mark Williams puzzled by Ronnie O'Sullivan's English Open venue criticism

Mark Williams (background) is a three-time World Champion while Ronnie O'Sullivan has won it five times

Mark Williams said the venue for the 2018 English Open is "one of the better ones" despite Ronnie O'Sullivan describing it as "a hellhole".

Both players won their first-round games at Crawley's K2 Leisure Centre, but O'Sullivan was critical of it.

"I don't know why he [O'Sullivan] said that," Williams said after beating fellow Welshman Dominic Dale 4-1.

"It's up to him what he wants to say but I found it fine... maybe he was on a different table to me, I'm not sure."

World champion Williams, who faces Alexander Ursenbacher in the next round after he beat Cardiff's Kishan Hirani, said he was happy with the facilities at the venue.

"We play in leisure centres all over the place and this is one of the better ones. It's massive, it's got everything here," said the 43-year-old.

"It looks good... it's just what we normally play in is leisure centres."

Elsewhere in the draw, Matthew Stevens also went through 4-1 against Chen Zifan, Ryan Day beat Ashley Hugill 4-0, Daniel Wells overcame Joe Perry 4-2, but Michael White lost 3-4 to Hossein Vafaei.

On Tuesday Lee Walker edged Jak Jones 4-3 in an all-Welsh first-round match, while Duane Jones was whitewashed 4-0 by Stuart Bingham.

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