Mark Williams routed Ken Doherty 5-0 as he began the defence of his PartyPoker.net German Masters title in convincing fashion in Berlin.

Williams piled up breaks of 50, 51 and 107 in the lop-sided victory over Doherty, who had earlier beaten Germany's Patrick Einsle 5-1 in the wild-card round to progress.

"To beat anyone 5-0 is a good result," Williams told worldsnooker.com. "Ken's a very tough opponent so to beat someone of his calibre is even better.

"This is an excellent arena so I want to still be here at the weekend to take in the atmosphere."

The closest of Wednesday's first-round matches saw Shaun Murphy edge out Barry Hawkins 5-4.

Murphy, the 2005 world champion and runner-up to Neil Robertson at the BGC Masters in London last month, came up with a break of 82 in the deciding frame.

There was trouble for Murphy when he trailed Hawkins 4-3 in the event at Berlin's Tempodrom venue.

Needing just one more frame to reach the last 16, Hawkins was at the table and ahead in the eighth but he let Murphy back in to pull level.

And having earned £32,000 for his weekend win in Blackpool, Hawkins was forced to settle for a first-round loser's cheque worth £3,100 this time as Murphy set up a clash with Martin Gould or Ricky Walden tomorrow evening.

"It was always going to be a tough match, Barry played like a man with a lot of confidence," said Murphy. "We both had chances in the last and I was lucky that he got a massive kick on the red to the middle.

"I think I'm due a title as I've been putting a lot of effort in and you usually get out what you put in. I thought it would pay off at the Masters but I missed out in the final."

John Higgins wrapped up a 5-1 win over Mark Davis but admitted his performances was less than sparkling.

"It was scrappy," the world champion said. "I'm glad to get through, but I need to improve. Mark has been playing really well recently and that must have been one of his worst performances."

Ricky Walden was more convincing as he piled up breaks of 102, 81, 57 and 73 in beating Martin Gould 5-1, while a 99 highlighted Stephen Lee's 5-2 victory over Adrian Gunnell.

Scotland's Stephen Maguire trounced struggling Welsh potter Ryan Day 5-1 and Stuart Bingham beat Peter Ebdon 5-3.