After not getting past the third round in the early part of the 2016–17 season, Hawkins reached the semi-finals of the English Open, where he lost 6–2 to Judd Trump.&lt;ref name="2016/17"&gt;&lt;/ref&gt; The next Home Nations event was the Northern Ireland Open and Hawkins again won through to the semi-finals. Anthony Hamilton came back from 4–2 and 5–3 down to send the match in to a deciding frame in which he feathered the white when well placed to hand Hawkins a chance for the match which he took. Hawkins was 5–1 ahead of Mark King in the final, before King won five frames in a row. Hawkins won a re-spotted black to make it 8–8 and then lost the deciding frame. In the second round of the UK Championship, Fergal O'Brien became the first player to make five centuries in a best-of-11 frame match as he edged out Hawkins 6–5. Hawkins had a good run at the Masters, needing only one frame to reach the final for a second consecutive time. He had a 5–2 advantage in his semi-final match against Joe Perry, before Perry secured the snooker he needed to reduce the lead to 5–3. Perry went on to win the three remaining frames, clinching the match and narrowly denying Hawkins a rematch against defending champion Ronnie O'Sullivan.