Snooker legend faces race against time to make money-spinning Saudi tournament after missing flight following flat tyre

SNOOKER legend Mark Williams is facing a race against time to play in the Riyadh Season World Masters.

The Welshman is due to kick off the inaugural tournament in Saudi Arabia with his opening night clash against one of the wildcard players.

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Mark Williams is facing a race against time to play in the Riyadh Season World Masters[/caption]

https://twitter.com/markwil147

The star shared a picture of a flat tyre that had seen him miss his flight to Saudi Arabia[/caption]

https://twitter.com/markwil147

The tyre looked to be extremely weathered[/caption]

However the four-time world champion has hit a stumbling block in his travels to the Middle East.

The 48-year-old took to social media to tell his followers that he has missed his flight due to a flat tyre.

He posted: “Great start to Saudi, missed flight” alongside a picture of the flat tyre that had caused his delay.

Williams later posted another photo that showed a seemingly unusable tyre which was both flat and heavily weathered.

There’s optimism that Williams will still be able to catch another flight and make it in time for the tournament which gets underway on Monday night.

And The Express have revealed that the World Snooker Tour (WST) expect the Welshman’s match to go ahead as scheduled in spite of his hellish journey to the airport.

The groundbreaking tournament will see the top eight players in the world compete against two wildcard stars for a prize pot of £790,000.

While organisers have confirmed that a brand new 23rd ball named the “Gold Ball” will be available for players who are on a 147 maximum break.

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Williams will get his tournament underway against one of the two local wildcard players – Omar Alajlani and Ali Alobaidli.

A draw is expected to take place on Sunday night to decide which local star will take on Williams and who will face off against Ali Carter.

Should Williams progress through his first round clash then he will face Ronnie O’Sullivan in the quarter-finals of the three-day competition on Tuesday.