Hawkins’ dominance

Barry Hawkins produced an astoundingly dominant performance to batter Shaun Murphy 10-1 yesterday.

Check out his stats from the day session alone.

Shaun Murphy’s law

One fan is getting excited about 2005 world champion Shaun Murphy’s chances of reigning again, despite his 10-1 defeat to Barry Hawkins last night.

An X user wrote: “Barry Hawkins’ victory means that Shaun Murphy will be seeded either 15 or 16 for the World Championship.

“Now I’m just saying @Magician147 but the last time you were seeded that low in the draw was…..2005!”

Murphy applauds Hawkins

Shaun Murphy was completely blown away by Barry Hawkins on Monday, falling 10-1 to The Hawk across two sessions.

Even he couldn’t help but clap his brilliant opponent!

Barry Hawkins reacts

The Hawk has admitted that his phone was “going mad” after he raced into a 7-1 lead over Shaun Murphy during today’s day session.

Asked if it is difficult to continue that form into the evening, following his 10-1 triumph, Barry Hawkins said: “Yeah, it is.

“Your phone’s going mad as if you’ve won the match already, so I didn’t even look at my phone.

“I could see it flashing up and I thought ‘I’m not answering that'”

Day 1 Scores

Here’s how yesterday’s action unfolded in Manchester, with the latter two matches to conclude later today:

Shaun Murphy 1 Barry Hawkins 10

Xiao Guodong 4 Wu Yize 4

Mark Williams 3 Ding Junhui 5

Williams 3 Ding 5

Ding Junhui wraps up today’s evening session with another dominant frame.

Mark Williams might even be relieved to be able to regroup, back at his hotel, as Ding finished tonight’s session on a roll.

The Chinese star finished the eighth frame on a break of 79.

Reigning champion Williams will have plenty to do when the pair reconvene.