Ditton's Barry Hawkins has been unimpressed by his Welsh Open performance to date - despite reaching the last 16 of the tournament on Wednesday.

The Ditton cueman beat his good friend Mark Davis 4-2 in the third round at Cardiff’s Motorpoint Arena and will play Mark Allen for a place in the quarter-finals on Thursday.

Hawkins fought back from 2-0 down, winning the third frame with a 56 break, and prevented Davis from getting back into the game thereafter.

The 36-year-old admits he has not produced anything close to his best snooker so far, but sees no reason why he couldn’t be the one lifting the trophy come Sunday.

“I'm not playing that well at the moment, to be honest, and I don't feel like my cueing has been great,” said Hawkins.

“Sometimes it's just mental and you're not focused enough. I'm delighted to be in the next round because I should've easily have been going home in the earlier rounds.

“It's a bit of a toss of a coin with best-of-sevens and I have been lucky this week that people have just played badly against me.

“The competition is not getting any easier but if I can hit a purple patch for four frames then I've as good a chance as any.”

The Welsh Open is being shown live on Eurosport all week and Eurosport’s expert line-up includes five-time world champion Ronnie “The Rocket” O’Sullivan, six-time World Championship finalist Jimmy “The Whirlwind” White, 1986 world champion Joe Johnson and former world No.3 Neal Foulds.

Hawkins acknowledges he must improve his mental state if he is to continue his progress through the tournament.

“I've definitely ridden my luck, I was there for the taking again,” he added.

“I know Mark will be devastated with that because he's missed balls to put me away.

“When it went 2-2 I managed to gee myself up a little bit and I probably was the better player of the two really in the last couple of frames.

“Towards the end I started cueing a bit better, I had a good 78 to go 3-2 up under pressure as well.

“I was 40 behind and I potted a lovely long red to get in so it's in there somewhere. It's just about being a bit more mentally prepared.”

Eurosport is the Home of Snooker, showing 19 tournaments per season, including the World Championship, UK Championship, Welsh Open and the Masters, as well as the exclusive series ‘The Ronnie O’Sullivan Show’.