Hendry eases past Haneveer

However, the scoreline does not quite do the Belgian's performance justice as Haneveer lost the second frame amid controversy concerning the match referee.

Hendry sped through the first frame but in the second he got trapped by a clever snooker by Haneveer, fouling twice for which a free ball should have been awarded for the second miss.

But it was not given and Hendry cleared up before taking the third frame comfortably thanks to eight consecutive fouls from Haneveer.

Mark Williams, another former world champion, made light work of his first-round match as he blitzed Brazilian Igor Figueiredo 3-0.

The 33-year-old, who only turned professional earlier this year, was reduced to a spectator as a break of 80 clinched the first for Williams.

The second frame was a little more competitive, with Figueiredo allowed the opportunity to showcase his obvious talent, but a nervy miss proved costly and he found himself 2-0 down.

Williams showed no sign of slowing down as he completed a rapid break of 96 to wrap up the match and set up a last-32 clash with Ali Carter.

Ding Junhui needed to be average at best to coast past Adrian Gunnell, as a 3-0 victory for the Chinese Sensation wrapped up the afternoon's play.

To say that Gunnell had an off day would be an understatement as he missed pockets with alarming frequency, failing to make any noteworthy breaks.

The tale of each of the three frames was very similar, with Ding making decent breaks of 30-40 before Gunnell failed to capitalise on a mistake and the process was repeated until the match was over.

The final frame summed up Gunnell's display, as the Englishman returned to the table 58-7 down, missed his shot and promptly conceded the match.

Jimmy White was not at his 'Whirlwind' best in the first match of the evening session, but still managed to overcome a stubborn Paul Davison in a 3-1 win.

Davison started extremely well, with White hitting just one shot in the first frame as the Yorkshire man powered through to suggest an upset could be on the cards.

White rallied to take the second, capitalising superbly on a slip-up from Davison and at that point both players were performing at a very high level.

However, neither could sustain it and an exciting game of impressive pace potting was reduced to attritional warfare as each shot was measured with lengthy forethought.

In the end, White handled the pressure better than his counterpart, firing in a superb pink to finish the third and a lucky green to end a fourth frame that had started to drag.

The tournament saved the best for last as Barry Hawkins gave everything he had to defeat Mark Selby 3-2.

The one-time office clerk was unfortunate in the first frame as he cleared the table to make it 54-54, but lost out once the black was replaced.

He responded in spectacular fashion with a break of 127 in the second and then 92 in the third to take the lead.

Selby rallied with a magnificent century break of his own to level proceedings before a marathon final frame which eventually saw the Kent man win it with just the black to play.