Barry Hawkins holds nerve to survive Neal Robertson fightback in 6-3 victory to reach Masters quarter-finals

Two-time runner-up Barry Hawkins is through to the quarter-finals of the Masters after a 6-3 victory over Neil Robertson.

The Hawk, who reached the final in 2016 and 2021, compiled four 50+ breaks on his way to a late-night victory at Alexandra Palace on Tuesday.

The two players could barely have arrived at Alexandra Palace in more differing form.

While Hawkins has enjoyed an impressive campaign, which he kicked off by beating Judd Trump to win the European Masters in August, his opponent has suffered a series of early exits in ranking events, losing matches to low-ranked players and dropping to 88th on the one-year list.

He even took a trip home to Australia to reset over the Christmas period and get himself in a better frame of mind for the resumption of the season.

An early long potted red to the top pocket will have given the ‘Thunder’ a much-needed confidence boost in the first frame. Even if, shortly after, a foul presented Hawkins with his first points of the tie.

With Hawkins leading the first frame by 32, he produced a beautiful safety shot, only for Robertson to pocket a long red, before watching the white squirm into the middle pocket. When you’re down on your luck, hey Neil?

The ‘Hawk’ proceeded to take the opening frame, but the 2022 champion hit back in the next, building a lead of 30 before missing the pink.

Hawkins was unable to take advantage and on Robertson’s return, he cleaned up to level the match with a frame which lasted over half an hour.

Having seen the second frame plod along, the third could not have been more different as the world no. 15 seized the initiative with a quick-fire break of 96 to take a 2-1 lead.

Robertson enjoyed a more measured spell at the table at the start of the fourth, but after what appeared to be a promising break came to a premature end, the speed of the game reduced once more with safety coming into play.

Hawkins would have been worried his chance had gone when he failed to force a red into the left corner in order to get in position on the black. However, poor attempts at landing snookers from Robertson continued and eventually, a miss on the yellow led to him conceding for a 3-1 deficit.

After the mid-session interval, the ‘Thunder’ kicked on with four red-blacks, but after a run of 32 he surrendered his place at the table.

Subsequently, his opponent eased his way around the table until a wild miscue led to him missing the red he was aiming for altogether.

It mattered not, though, with Robertson failing to accept the gift that came his way as he went in-off, and slipped to a three frame deficit.

He would hit back in the sixth and seventh frames though, with successive centuries of 117 and 115 putting the pressure right back on the ‘Hawk’, even brushing off a pause in play when a problematic wasp landed on the table.

Hopes of drawing level were extinguished though as, despite putting 24 on the board, a poor safety break gave Hawkins the chance to compile a break of 69 to move to within one frame of the quarter-finals.

A foul from the Aussie, who went in off, then gifted him a chance to get across the winning line, and a break of 59 put him in a commanding position.

That was far from the end of the frame, though, as, with Robertson needing two snookers, the ninth frame proved to be the longest of the match, with the ‘Hawk’ missing numerous chances to put the match to bed.

Eventually, with the clock ticking on towards 11:30pm, Hawkins clipped home the final red, and his opponent offered his hand a few seconds later after the pink and yellow were also sunk.