Stuart Bingham Wins Gibraltar Open Final

Stuart Bingham won his sixth career ranking title with a 4-1 victory over defending champion Ryan Day in the Gibraltar Open final on Sunday.

The Englishman, who also triumphed in the English Open in October and was the runner-up in last month’s Welsh Open, was the standout player of the tournament.

Bingham scored nine centuries in total, including a brace in the Gibraltar Open final that helped award him the £25,000 champion’s cheque.

Day actually came from a long way behind to snatch the opening frame with a nice 83 clearance but that was as good as it got for the Welshman.

Bingham responded with breaks of 100, 84, and 103 to move to within the brink of glory.

While his opponent had opportunities to reduce the arrears in the fifth frame, Bingham held on to clinch the deserved success on the colours.

The 42 year-old’s run was doubly important as he guaranteed himself a place in this week’s lucrative Tour Championship – the final event in the inaugural Coral Cup series that features only the top eight players on the one-year rankings list.

Kyren Wilson completed the line-up for that tournament, which boasts a top prize of £150,000 in Llandudno, despite bowing out in the last 16 to Robert Milkins.

David Gilbert, who lost to Wilson in the final of the German Masters, had a chance to dislodge his fellow Englishman from the final qualification spot.

Contesting the Gibraltar Open final would have proved to be enough but the “Angry Farmer” narrowly missed out after a costly defeat to Day in the quarter-finals.

As it was, Day beat Lu Ning and Bingham overcame teenager Yuan Sijun in the last four with both Chinese competitors featuring in the semi-finals of a ranking event for the first times in their careers.

It was Bingham who took a deserved title, though, and it marks the first occasion since his World Championship winning campaign that “Ballrun” has bagged two pieces of ranking silverware in the same term.

Click here to view the draw.

Winner winner chicken dinner. 😜
Thanks for all the messages and support. 🏆#gibraltaropen #snooker @ Gibraltar https://t.co/lrYOo0ggMl

— Stuart Bingham (@Stuart__Bingham) March 17, 2019