Barry Hawkins beats Judd Trump 10-7 at the Tour Championship

Following a poor run of form last term, Hawkins has been back to something close to his best in recent months and avenged an agonising defeat at the hands of Trump in the German Masters in January with a polished display at the Celtic Manor that saw him run out a deserved 10-7 winner.

Hawkins made much of the early running and having ended the afternoon session with a healthy 5-3 advantage thanks to breaks of 70, 90 and 63, he took control of the match upon the resumption and stretched his lead to 7-3.

To his credit, Trump produced a typically brazen response as he claimed the next three frames to close to one, before Hawkins kept his cool to pull away again and put himself on the brink of victory at 9-7.

Another Trump rally saw him keep his hopes alive with a run of 94 in frame 16 but Hawkins would not be denied, getting the better of a cagey 17th frame to set up a last-four clash with Ronnie O'Sullivan on Saturday.

Hawkins told World Snooker Tour: "I tried my heart out, you are obviously going to in a tournament like this. I just tried to give it everything, I wanted to stay as calm as I could.

"That match at the German Masters came into my head a few times. I just thought that I’d played well all the way through the match today and when he left me that long brown at the end of the match, I knew I had to go for it.

"Sometimes you can’t help but get negative thoughts now and again. Everyone can play well, it is how you deal with things going wrong. Behind closed doors in the cubicles everyone plays so well. When you get on the TV table it is a different sort of game and a different sort of pressure. It is how you deal with that.

"I have to tell myself to have that self belief. I’ve just beaten the world number one, who has been dominating the game for three or four seasons. I’ve got to take that confidence into the semi-finals. I now have to focus on that Ronnie game and keep doing what I’m doing."