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Defending Champ Stuart Bingham into Masters Quarter-Finals

The 2020 champion is the third player through to the last eight this year so far.

Stuart Bingham survived a late rally from his opponent to reach the quarter-finals of the Masters on Monday in Milton Keynes.

The Englishman, a surprise winner 12 months ago at the Alexandra Palace, beat Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 6-4 at the Marshall Arena.

Bingham looked to be in complete control of proceedings when he established a 5-1 advantage and was in among the balls in the seventh frame attempting a maximum break to finish the debutant off in style.

But the 44 year-old broke down on 64 and Un-Nooh, who had struggled to demonstrate any kind of form up until that point, suddenly sprung into life.

The first Thai since 1999 to compete in the prestigious invitational, Un-Nooh cleared with a break of 68 to clinch the frame before adding speedy contributions of 80 and 113 to reduce the arrears to just one frame.

The 35 year-old had a brief opportunity in the next frame to continue the comeback, but a wild miss on the pink allowed Bingham in to tally the points he needed for victory.

His timely run of 67 proved to be enough, adding to his earlier breaks in the affair of 114, 95, 64, and 63.

Bingham joins Kyren Wilson and David Gilbert in the Masters quarter-finals after his fellow Englishmen won their fixtures on the opening day on Sunday.

“I’ve been playing okay,” the former world number two told Eurosport soon after he completed the win.

“I still need to get over the line and sharpen up on a few things here and there, but other than that I’ve been scoring pretty well.

“Today my long potting was good – we’ll see, I’m in the next round and that’s all you can hope for.”

The 2015 world champion will face either Mark Williams or Shaun Murphy in the next round, with that pair set to face off against each other in the next match on Monday evening.

Live coverage is being provided by Eurosport and the BBC across Ireland and the UK, with further broadcasts also available around the world.

Click here to view the full draw (Times in CET)

Featured photo credit: WST

One Comment

  1. Pingback: Shaun Murphy Edges Mark Williams in Milton Keynes - SnookerHQ

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