WORLD number one Mark Williams yesterday destroyed Paul Hunter as the Welshman cruised into the quarter-finals of the Thailand Masters in Bangkok.

The Cwm left-hander, who won last week's China Open, whitewashed Paul Hunter 5-0 in only 64 minutes to avenge his 10-9 defeat when they clashed for the Masters title last year.

Williams, who beat David Gray in the first round on Wednesday, will meet Irishman Fergal O'Brien in the last eight later this afternoon (3pm).

Meanwhile, Ronnie O'Sullivan scrambled into the quarter-finals with a nailbiting 5-4 win over Mark King but was not in the mood to celebrate a victory he should have completed far more comfortably.

The world champion, who had the crowd on the edge of their seats with a black ball win, said: "I know I've got through but I'm still disappointed."

Whatever is bugging 'The Rocket', it had little impact in the early stages as he raced into a 4-1 lead in less than an hour with contributions of 80, 44, 78 and 88.

But King, surprisingly successful in three of their previous four encounters, almost pulled off a miraculous recovery to emulate Paul Hunter and Jimmy White, who rallied from well behind to edge O'Sullivan at the Regal Welsh Open in January and last month's Benson and Hedges Masters.

Left-hander King fought back to 4-4 and an upset looked very much on the cards when O'Sullivan missed a simple black off its spot early in the decider. King pounced with a 46 but failed to dislodge the two remaining reds that were tying each other up.

He subsequently double kissed a red trying to play safe and O'Sullivan put together an exceptional 41 clearance to pinch it on the black.

O'Sullivan, who potted both the final pink and black using the rest, then employed a football analogy to explain why he grows irritated when contests become scrappy. "If you watched George Best and Maradona they made the game look pretty. Who wants to watch Wimbledon when you can watch Manchester United. Wimbledon can only battle away and spoil.

"I think snooker is an art and I enjoy it most when I'm flowing." O'Sullivan, winner of only one title so far this season - the UK Championship in mid-December - will be hoping to deliver a Manchester United-like display tomorrow when he takes on seven-time world champion Stephen Hendry for a semi-final spot. They have only met once this season and Hendry ran out a 5-4 winner on the way to lifting the European Open trophy in Malta.

O'Sullivan's next opponent could well have been Alan McManus but Hendry rallied after falling 3-0 adrift to beat his fellow Scot 5-4 thanks to a conscious decision to adopt a more positive game plan.

"I started to play well because I started to be more aggressive. I was going for virtually everything if I could see it and I ended up playing some good snooker," said Hendry, who compiled a 101 break, his 555th century in pro competition in moving 4-3 ahead. McManus convincingly won the eighth but Hendry fluked a red at a vital stage of the decider, laid a snooker and when McManus misjudged his escape stepped in with a run of 44 to keep hopes alive of collecting the £67,500 first prize and his 34th world ranking event title.

Matthew Stevens became the second Welshman of the day to exact revenge for a recent Benson and Hedges Masters reverse when he beat Jimmy White 5-2 to reach a ranking event quarter-final for only the second time in what has been a low key season for the 2000 world championship runner-up.

Stevens goes forward to face John Higgins, who had a day off after compiling a tournament record 145 total clearance during his 5-4 win over Joe Swail on Wednesday night.