Kent’s Barry Hawkins cruised to Sunday’s final of the Players Championship with an easy 6-2 win over Ricky Walden.

The pair were fighting for the chance to meet the winner of the tournament’s other semi-final, with Jimmy Robertson playing his namesake Neil on Saturday night ahead of Sunday’s final, with the latter coming out on top.

Walden started the strongest of the pair as he built a nice 69 break in the the opening frame, but a break of 60 in the second could not hold back Hawkins as he built a score of 70 over the course of his visits.

Hawkins then grabbed the next frame 84-24, and a break of 55 helped him stretch into a 3-1 lead.

Walden persisted, and a half-century break of his own reduced the deficit, but Hawkins replied with a dominant break of 115, the first century of the game.

That left him just two frames from victory and upped the pressure on his opponent to stay in contention.

Walden however could not resist Hawkins, who made it three frames on the bounce with consistent heavy scoring, as a break of 61 in one frame and 75 the next enough to secure victory.

The final starts at 1pm on Sunday.