Barry Hawkins’ hopes of a quarter-final appearance at the World Snooker Championships were ended on Monday night.

The Ditton cueman had already beaten world number one Mark Selby in the first round and went into the second session of his last-16 game leading Matthew Stevens 8-6 following Sunday’s play.

But Hawkins (pictured) had no answer to Stevens in the latter stages as his opponent won seven of the last 10 frames to take the match 13-11.

That denied Hawkins a first-ever quarter-final appearance at the Crucible where Welshman Ryan Day was awaiting the winner.

A 10-3 victory over top ranked player Selby in the first round had got Hawkins’ tournament off to a great start.

Selby was suffering with a neck injury and Hawkins took full advantage.

Left-hander Hawkins, the world number 22, then met Stevens in round two and looked on course for another win.

Hawkins won the opening three frames before Stevens levelled up the match at 3-3 with a 101 break in frame six.

But the Kent potter held his nerve and won the next three to ease into a 6-3 lead. Stevens kept in touch and trailed by just two frames by the end of the session.

Monday proved to be a disappointing day for Hawkins as he won just three more frames and Stevens made breaks of 87 and 80 to win the match.