LONDON, Jan. 15 (Xinhua) -- Neil Robertson defeated world champion Mark Williams while Barry Hawkins eased past Shaun Murphy in the first round of the Masters snooker tournament at Alexandra Palace here on Tuesday.

Australia's Robertson, who failed to qualify for the event last year, came from 3-1 down to beat two-time winner Williams 6-3 to reach the quarterfinals. World number seven Hawkins went through to the last eight with a 6-2 victory.

Robertson, who climbed back to top ten after two ranking titles this season, will take on Hawkins on Friday evening.

"To beat the world champion today was a huge step in the right direction," the 36-year-old Robertson said.

Murphy, who won the title in 2015, joined Mark Allen, John Higgins and Williams as the former champions to be knocked out of this year's tournament.

Hawkins, who failed to win a match in his first five appearances in this tournament, reached the final in 2016, losing to Ronnie O'Sullivan, and the semifinals the following year and will be confident of another deep run this time.

The 39-year-old Hawkins said, "I was 5-0 up and probably relaxed a little bit and missed a couple of balls, but I wasn't twitching at that stage. Anything can happen in this game and if he goes 5-3 then all of a sudden I'd start feeling it a little bit more. I was pleased to get over the line at last.

"It's a nightmare because the crowd want to see it go 5-5. They want to see as much snooker as possible when you just want to get out of there and win the match."