Top seeds Bingham and Selby progress as Hawkins survives huge scare

World champion Bingham has reached the last four of the UK over the past two years, and was a 6-1 winner against Jordan Brown that included breaks of 126, 100 and 80.

Selby completed a 6-0 win over fellow Leicester player Joe O'Connor with knocks of 113, 90 and 60.

"I started off well and put Joe under pressure from the off. I knew he’d be nervous out there anyway having not been in that sort of environment very much," said 2012 champion Selby. "It was scrappy in parts but in patches I felt like I could go on and win frames in one visit– I think I just lost concentration.

"I want Joe to do well and fulfil his potential in snooker. Hopefully he does get on the Tour and if he does he knows what to expect now. It’s just hard that we drew each other. If he comes to me I will give him advice because obviously I want him to do well.”

Hawkins watched 1995 World Championship semi-finalist Hicks - who has amateur status after dropping off the tour in 2012 - contribute runs of 86, 64 and 94 in establishing a two-frame advantage at 3-1 ahead.

Hawkins - who lost the 2013 world final to Ronnie O'Sullivan - forced a decider with a knock of 80 only for Hicks to suffer a cruel piece of luck when he appeared on the cusp of victory.

Hicks famously beat Steve Davis in the first round at the Crucible Theatre 20 years ago, but has never reached those heights despite being a player of stunning natural ability.

Holding a lead of 25 heading for the colours, Hicks potted yellow only to see the white ball run into a middle bag. Hawkins slotted the remaining colours to complete victory a year after he blew a 5-0 lead in losing 6-5 to Nigel Bond at the same stage of snooker's second biggest ranking event.

“I can’t believe I have won,” said Hawkins. "Andy was desperately unlucky in the last frame. He potted a lot of good reds but didn’t land on a colour. It seemed as if I was destined to win.

"I potted some good balls under pressure in the end. He’s an amateur, but he’s dangerous and at the start he wasn’t missing anything. I have definitely used my get out of jail free card. I want to do well in these big events so I would have been fuming if I had lost.”

Robert Milkins 6-0 Vinnie Calabrese

Graeme Dott 6-2 Nigel Bond

Barry Hawkins 6-5 Andy Hicks ​

Mark Allen 6-2 Zhao Xintong

Rod Lawler v Daniel Wells

Robin Hull 6-4 Zhang Anda

Robbie Williams 6-3 Mitchell Mann

Dechawat Poomjaeng 6-4 Chris Melling

Stuart Bingham 6-1 Jordan Brown

David Gilbert 6-1 James Weston

Fergal O'Brien v Thor Chaun Leong ​

Mark Selby 6-0 Joe O'Connor

Anthony Hamilton v Peter Lines

Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 6-3 Darryl Hill

Kurt Mafflin 3-6 Sean O'Sullivan

Mark Joyce v Barry Pinches

Kyren Wilson v Paul S Davison

Neil Robertson v Alex Taubman

Stephen Maguire v Jimmy White ​

Matthew Selt v Zhang Yong

Dominic Dale v Michael Wild

Luca Brecel v Hossein Vafaei Ayouri

Xiao Guodong v Noppon Saengkham

Cao Yupeng v Oliver Lines

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