Hawkins And Wilson Into Third Round

Barry Hawkins and Kyren Wilson both eased into the last 32 of the Betway UK Championship in York with comfortable second round wins.

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World number six Hawkins whitewashed Ian Burns 6-0 with top breaks of 83 and 76 to set up a match with Gary Wilson or Sam Baird.

“The scoreline flattered me, I didn’t play that well,” admitted Londoner Hawkins. “Ian struggled a bit – I hope everyone plays like that against me. It starts getting serious now so hopefully I can hit a bit of form in the next round.”

Wilson scored breaks of 81 and 83 in a 6-2 win over Mike Dunn. World number 11 Wilson now meets Yan Bingtao or Paul Davison, with the chance to reach the last 16 of this tournament for the first time.

“I’ve got a lot of improving to do if I want to win this title,” said Kettering’s Wilson, who has already won the Paul Hunter Classic and Six Red World Championship this season. “The only positive from tonight is that I can’t play any worse. The match was scrappy right from the start.

“My coach and my manager will grill me now and tell me what I did wrong and how I can improve, which is what I need after that performance.”

Stuart Bingham survived an impressive fight back from Kurt Maflin to win 6-5. Former World Champion Bingham made breaks of 121, 107 and 76 as he went 5-2 up, before Maflin recovered to 5-5 with 89, 55 and 106. The decider came down to the last red, and after Maflin’s attempted long pot missed its target, Bingham cleared for victory.

Tom Ford made a 113 in the decider to beat Robert Milkins 6-5 while Joe Perry top scored with 80 in a 6-1 defeat of Michael Holt.

Mark Selby’s conqueror James Cahill suffered a 6-5 defeat against Sunny Akani. Cahill led 64-1 in the decider only for Thailand’s Akani to fluke a red as he escaped from a snooker and clear up with 76.