Four-time champion John Higgins battled to a hard-fought 10-6 win over Jamie Jones to set up an enticing last-16 match with world number three Mark Allen.
Before the tournament, the 48-year-old Higgins said he would “evaluate” his future in the summer, with speculation he would retire if he lost early on.
He is 13th in the world but needs to reach the quarter-finals to stay in the world’s top 16.
Higgins, the 1998, 2007, 2009 and 2011 winner, held a 5-4 lead at the end of the first session and stretched that to 7-4 and then 9-5. Jones got one back, and the 16th frame lasted more than 30 minutes as both had chances, but the Scot sealed the win to progress.
His victory meant this World Championship did not set a new record for the most seeded players to be knocked out in the first round.
Eight of the top 16 – Luca Brecel, Mark Selby, Williams, Ding Junhui, Ali Carter, Gary Wilson, Zhang and Hawkins – all lost, matching the eight that fell in 1980, 1992 and 2012, but 13th seed Higgins avoided a similar fate.
The second round began on Thursday and world number two Judd Trump had breaks of 67, 52 and 69 as he took a 6-2 lead against 14th seed Tom Ford.
Trump needs seven more frames to advance into the quarter-finals and that match continues on Friday afternoon (14:30 BST).
The 16th seed, Robert Milkins, trails 5-3 against David Gilbert, who beat 2023 champion Brecel on the opening day.
Gilbert had opened up a three-frame advantage, aided by breaks of 50, 51 and 89, but Milkins stole the last frame 65-64 to cut his deficit to two frames.
That match resumes on Friday morning (10:00 BST) and concludes on Friday evening from 19:00 BST.
