The world No.51 from Kent trailed Higginson 1-4 at the Norbreck Castle Hotel in Blackpool, but stormed back to win 5-4. Hawkins now has to beat Robert Milkins in the final qualifying round to book his place at the Royal Highland Centre in Edinburgh.

Breaks of 68. 61 and 77 put Higginson 4-1 ahead but Hawkins after two scrappy frames then knocked in 82 points on the trot to level the scores 4-4.

In the final frame, both players had their fair chances to win the decider but Hawkins sealed the match on the final red.

Ryan Day made it eight consecutive victories with a 5-1 thrashing over Barry Pinches.

The 22-year-old Welshman lost his first match in Blackpool but then qualified for the finals stages of the Irish Masters and will book his place in Edinburgh if he beats Mark Davis.

Day was target for a break of 139 in the fourth, which would have been the highest in the event so far, but missed the last red to settle with 104. Runs of 52 and 43 helped him finish the match within two frames of the interval.

In a previous match, Day in superb break-building form had runs of 94, 55. 112 and 101.

Rory McLeod Angie a comfortable 5-1 victory over Dave Finbow to set up a match with Jamie Burnett, while Glasgow’s Stephen Maguire beat Rod Lawler by the same scoreline and now plays Gary Wilkinson.

Nineteen Shaun Murphy completed an impressive fightback against Kwan Poomjang of Thailand. Murphy was down 0-2, but with four successive frames including a splendid break of 87 in the fourth then 66 in the eighth helped him to a 5-3 victory.

Former Benson and Hedges Championship winner Murphy, now goes on to play Darren Morgan . Sean Storey continued his good form at the qualifiers with a 5-0 thrashing of Paul Wykes. Storey who had a break of 89 now plays Jimmy Michie.

Iceland’s Kristjan Helgsason won the last three frames to edge out Darren Clark 5-2 and will now take on Bradley Jones. Mark Grey squeezed out Martin Dziewialtowski 5-4 in a four hour marathon to set up a match with Stuart Bingham.

Leo Fernandes stormed trough to a match against Andy Hicks with a 5-0 drumming of Irishman Colm Gilcreest, knocking up break of 66 and 71. Rory Mcleod whitewashed Paul Davison with a top run of 79, while David Gilbert finished with 117 and 76 to beat Adrian Gunnell. Lee Spick had the top break of the day of 133 but sadly went down 4-5 to Lee Walker.

Following were the other results:

John Read beat Jason Prince 5-2, Antony Bolsover beat Johi Younger 5-3. Troy Shaw beat Nick Pearce 5-3. Wayne Brown beat Phaithoon 5-3. Simon Bedford beat Munraj Pal 5-2. Andrew Higgenson beat Jeff Cundy 5-0. Rod Lawler beat David John 5-4.