GWENT'S Mark Williams admitted he got what he deserved as Stephen Maguire bundled him out of the Welsh Open at the quarter-final stage yesterday.

The world number two was the pre-tournament favourite following his win at the German Masters and wowed the Newport Centre crowds with two 4-0 whitewashes over Marco Fu and Jamie Cope this week.

But he endured a bad day at the office against Maguire in a poor quality match littered with errors from both players.

“I knew the run was going to come to an end at some point. I didn't play very well,” said the 35-year-old Cwm star.

“I was tournament favourite but I never took anything for granted. Any tournament is tough to win.

“It was a good scrap, there were a lot of kicks, but I probably lost to the better player on the day,” he added.

“He played OK but he knows he'll have to play better to get through the semis.”

Maguire beat Williams 5-1 at the same stage last year but the Welshman looked to be in charge at 3-2 up after the mid-session interval.

Then a break of 105 break from Maguire made it 3-3 and the momentum shifted, though neither player was happy with the way they played.

Maguire missed a pink to the middle to let in Williams in frame seven but he didn't take his chance and Maguire went 4-3 up with a break of 68.

In frame eight Maguire seemed to be cruising to victory before missing a simple green at 35-0 up but once again an off-colour Williams couldn't take advantage.

Maguire then missed a brown by several inches but was lucky that the cue ball nestled against the blue, meaning Williams couldn't get back in and the Scot wrapped up a hard-fought 5-3 win.

“I beat the man in form and I'll take the positives from that. It was ugly but a win is a win,” said Maguire, who predicted Williams would be amongst the favourites to win the World Championships in April.

“He's up there amongst the favourites for the worlds,” he added.

“On form it's probably between him and Higgins to win it so to beat him is a great even if I was a bit lucky on a few occasions.”

In tonight's semi-final Maguire will face Mark Selby, the Jester from Leicester, who ground out a 5-3 win against Graeme Dott yesterday.

There was further disappointment for Welsh fans late last night as Matthew Stevens lost out 5-3 to John Higgins.

The world number one will take on Ali Carter in the other semi this afternoon after the Englishman beat China's Ding Junhai 5-3.