Neil Robertson and Barry Hawkins suffer shock exits on dramatic Crucible night

Neil Robertson and Barry Hawkins were both beaten in their opening matches at the World Snooker Championship, losing to Chris Wakelin and Hossein Vafaei respectively on Sunday night.

It was a dramatic evening in Sheffield as both games went close, with Vafaei the first to get over the line in a 10-9 victory over the Hawk.

Wakelin was not far behind as he picked up a 10-8 win over the 2010 world champion in a contest which wildly swung both ways.

The Englishman led 7-2 after their first session on Saturday night and looked in total control thanks to breaks of 108, 70, 62, 52 and 54.

The Australian was not daunted, though, and powered back into contention on Sunday evening.

Five frames on the spin from Robertson levelled the game, but to Wakelin’s credit he recomposed himself after looking in terrible trouble and stopped his opponent’s momentum with a break of 90.

Robertson took the next but Wakelin was no longer completely gone and managed to go one from victory before an epic final frame in which he just about stumbled over the winning line.

That victory is Wakelin’s first at the Crucible and books himself a meeting with either Mark Allen or Fan Zhengyi in the last 16.

‘Neil played unbelievable to get back to 7-7, I didn’t expect him to roll over, he’s a true champion. I managed to fall over the line, but it’s really difficult out there. I’ve had an amazing season, but to do well here this week would be incredible.’

On the other table it had proved impossible to separate the two players throughout the match which began on Saturday night and came to a conclusion on Sunday evening.

Neither player managed to win more than two frames on the spin for the entire contest, which showed how evenly matched they are.

The Hawk marginally got the better of the first session, ending Saturday with a 5-4 lead as a huge shock was emerging on the other table with Lei Peifan beating Kyren Wilson.

The Englishman took the first frame of Sunday to remain in control, but Vafaei then showed that he meant business with back-to-back tons to level things up at 6-6.

Hawkins responded with an 87 and took the next, but the pattern of the session continued as Vafaei won two frames of his own, the second with another century, his fourth of the match.

The Hawk responded with a brilliant ton of his own to go one from victory but the Prince of Persia capitalised on a mistake to take the game to a decider and then made an impressive 73 to win the match.

Vafaei was not ahead at any point in the match until the most important point of all, at 10-9.

Vafaei will face Mark Williams in the last 16 after the Welshman beat Wu Yize earlier on Sunday.

The Iranian said of the three-time world champion: ‘He is one of the greatest legends in our sport, I respect him a lot.

‘It’s going to be a great match. It’s a good achievement for me.’