Snooker News

Bingham Bags Second Semi Spot

Stuart Bingham became the second player through to the semi-finals of the inaugural Champion of Champions event in Coventry on Wednesday.

‘Ballrun’ was invited to play at the Ricoh Arena off the back of capturing the Premier League title around this time last year.

This new initiative has replaced the Premier League on the calendar and after only two days already appears set to become a permanent fixture.

In his opening match, Bingham easily outscored fellow Englishman Ricky Walden to seal a 4-0 drubbing before overcoming Judd Trump 6-2 in his group final.

Trump, who had earlier beaten Marco Fu 4-1 in a rather dour affair, never really recovered from losing the opening frame having missed frame ball on a break of 60.

Former Australian Open champion Bingham cleared with a 63 to snatch it and runs of 111 and 78 opened up a three frame cushion.

Although Trump, qualifying through his International Championship success of 2012, was able to reduce the arrears to one, Bingham pulled away again to complete a comfortable enough triumph.

That success for Trump in Chengdu must seem like a distant memory and his defeat continues what has been a difficult season for a player who, this time last year, was the world no.1.

Trump will go into the upcoming major championships, the UK and the Masters, severely lacking in confidence and reports have emerged stating that he has begun to practice with world champion Ronnie O’Sullivan again in a bid to regain his form.

For Bingham, it was an almost perfect day’s action and he now moves forward to face Leicester’s Mark Selby in the last four on Saturday.

The 37 year-old has had a steady if unspectacular campaign so far, with this marking his first semi-final in a tournament – barring the 6-Red World Championship in September.

Even if the two events are barely related, it would still be a nice feather in his cap should Bingham be the last player to win the Premier League and the first to emerge triumphant in the CofC.

The other two semi-finalists will be determined over the next couple of days.

Today, Neil Robertson, Martin Gould, Mark Allen and Ali Carter will all battle it out for the third place up for grabs.

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