Williams has struggled for form this season

The 19-year-old went down 5-3 to his rival from London, who has not won a ranking match this campaign.

"I knew I was playing well, but it was a case of getting over the line at the end," said Hawkins, world number 12.

Hawkins, who made breaks of 116 and 134, will now play Northern Ireland's Joe Swail who recorded a 5-3 win over former world champion Peter Ebdon.

Meanwhile, defending champion Mark Williams also exited in the opening round after losing 5-1 to Jamie Cope.

The former world number one, who has just celebrated the birth of his second child, has dropped to 10th in the provisional rankings.

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Cope will now face Stuart Bingham who recorded a 5-4 win over Steve Davis.

In the tournaments up to the China Open, Williams had gained 6,725 ranking points, comfortably the lowest of the players in the provisional top 16.

He now faces a fight to hang on to his place among the elite next season.

Speaking before the start of the tournament, Williams admitted his practice regime had slipped since he became a father.

"I'm looking to get a few wins," he said.

"I'm still practising, but not as much as I used to. Things change when you have a family, I have different priorities in my life.

"But I still love snooker. I've got lots of fond memories of last season when I won the China Open - it was nice to win a tournament for a change."

Cope looked on course to a maximum break in the fifth frame of his win over Williams, but missed the 14th read to settle for a 104.

He said: "If I keep playing like that I can beat anyone, so maybe I could be the champion.

"That's the best game I've played for a long time. Whenever I was in the balls I felt like potting them, and that's what I did.

"Mark looked to be playing okay when he was in the balls but I didn't give him many chances. I didn't expect it to be easy but it was in the end because I played very well."

Elsewhere, Shaun Murphy scored a 5-1 win over Mei Xiwen and will now meet Stephen Maguire who was a 5-3 winner against Mark King.

Nottingham's Anthony Hamilton slipped to a 5-4 defeat to Leicester's Mark Selby.

Selby will face Irishman Ken Doherty who cruised to a 5-1 victory over Chinese wildcard Li Hang.

Wednesday's first round results:

Barry Hawkins (Eng) 5-3 Ding Junhui (Chn)
Anthony Hamilton (Eng) 4-5 Mark Selby (Eng)
Peter Ebdon (Eng) 3-5 Joe Swail (NI)
Ken Doherty (Ire) 5-1 Li Hang (Chn)
Steve Davis (Eng) 4-5 Stuart Bingham (Eng)
Stephen Maguire (Sco) 5-3 Mark King (Eng)
Mark Williams (Wal) 1-5 Jamie Cope (Eng)
Shaun Murphy (Eng) 5-1 Mei Xiwen (Chn)