TWICE Masters champion Mark Williams revealed he may retire at the end of the season after crashing out of this year's tournament.

The Cwm man, a Masters winner in 1998 and 2003, looked in good shape as he raced into a 2-0 lead over Irishman Ken Doherty in their last 16 meeting.

But two-time Masters finalist Doherty hit back in sensational style to win six frames in succession for a deserved 6-2 victory and place in the quarter-finals of this year's £460,000 event at the Wembley Conference Centre.

"You never know, that could be my last match here at Wembley,'' reflected Williams, who has slipped to number 33 in the provisional world rankings.

"I've got to have a really good end to the season to give myself any chance of staying in the top 32.

"If I drop out of the top 32 then I would probably call it a day, that would be it (the end). If I'm still in the top 32 then I'll probably stick around. It all depends on the last two or three months.

"I'm hitting the ball a lot better (than 12 months ago), but I'm still getting the same results. It's very annoying.

"But hopefully I can get a few results in the last few ranking tournaments and it doesn't come to that (retiring).

"I don't think I'd be looking at going to the qualifiers to be honest. It will be hard work going back to Pontin's (Holiday Park).'' Williams started well enough and with breaks of 118 and 69 deserved his two-frame cushion.

But Doherty, beaten in the 1999 and 2000 Masters finals, responded with a break of 104 - and from there did not look back as he added further runs of 47, 89, 68 and 46 to clinch victory in little over two hours.

"I started off all right. He played quite well, but from 2-0, I didn't really do that much wrong,'' added Williams.

"I missed a couple of balls, but nothing I can really beat myself up about.

"I felt quite good out there."