Stuart ‘Ballrun’ Bingham beat Ding Junhui 5-4 in the Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters after an outrageous incident in their deciding frame on Tuesday.
After a high-quality encounter in which both players traded big breaks, Ding appeared to be heading for victory in the ninth and final frame.
The Chinese competitor was nicely in among the balls when he potted a routine black ball with screw and split the pack of reds.
However, while playing the black with force, the tip on his cue inadvertently flew off his cue, bounced off the table, and hit another red ball.
Albeit extremely unfortunate, it was quickly deemed a foul and Bingham duly took advantage.
After a brief interlude for tip repairs, the players returned and Bingham made a match-winning break to advance to the last 16.
“Ballrun Bingham strikes again,” the 2015 world champion quipped in a social media post after, referencing his luck-inspired nickname.
Ding had never been behind before the bizarre episode, four times leading only for his opponent to respond.
The duo exchanged breaks of 140, 124, 101, 94, 76, 68, 63, and 50, so it was a shame an entertaining affair had to end in such a manner.
Eighth seed Ding wasn’t the only top 16 player to suffer defeat in what was their opening fixture of the lucrative ranking event.
Indeed, it was a desperately poor day for several higher-ranked stars who won’t be seizing the opportunity to earn mega ranking points in Riyadh.
Mark Allen, Mark Selby, Luca Brecel, Ali Carter, Tom Ford, Jak Jones, Barry Hawkins, and John Higgins all lost as well.
Among those, Allen’s was arguably the most shocking with the Pistol only managing to win one frame against Xiao Guodong.
Selby got the short straw by drawing Neil Robertson and lost 5-3 to his fellow former world champion.
For Brecel, a 5-2 reverse to Pang Junxu heaps further pressure on his tour survival ambitions this season.
The Belgian Bullet is still ranked as high as number six in the official world rankings but is languishing down at 62 on the provisional end-of-season standings following a dismal spell of form.
As usual, only the top 64 players at the end of the campaign will be guaranteed their future tour cards as professionals.
Among the marquee names to reach the sixth round were Ronnie O’Sullivan, Kyren Wilson, and Judd Trump.
The latter produced a remarkable fight back from a 4-0 interval deficit to beat Wu Yize 5-4.
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Saudi Masters draw + results
O’Sullivan, by contrast, coasted to a 5-1 success over Lei Peifan, while the in-form Wilson beat Liu Hongyu 5-3.
Zhang Anda, meanwhile, undoubtedly produced the performance of the day courtesy of his 5-0 demolition of Ben Woollaston.
Zhang compiled three breaks of 138 and a 128 as he whitewashed the Englishman, who scored just 15 points.
Mark Williams had a more strenuous outing but eventually outlasted Thepchaiya Un-Nooh in a decider.
Shaun Murphy and Gary Wilson were the other seeded contenders who made it through after respective 5-2 wins against Yuan Sijun and David Gilbert.
On Wednesday, the Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters continues, and the eight quarter-finalists will be determined by the end of the day’s play.
Tuesday’s Results (Rd 5)
Kyren Wilson 5-3 Liu Hongyu
John Higgins 2-5 Jimmy Robertson
Mark Williams 5-4 Thepchaiya Un-Nooh
Ding Junhui 4-5 Stuart Bingham
Ronnie O’Sullivan 5-1 Lei Peifan
Zhang Anda 5-0 Ben Woollaston
Tom Ford 2-5 Si Jiahui
Luca Brecel 2-5 Pang Junxu
Judd Trump 5-4 Wu Yize
Jak Jones 3-5 Jack Lisowski
Gary Wilson 5-2 David Gilbert
Mark Selby 3-5 Neil Robertson
Shaun Murphy 5-2 Yuan Sijun
Ali Carter 3-5 Elliot Slessor
Barry Hawkins 1-5 Scott Donaldson
Mark Allen 1-5 Xiao Guodong
Wednesday’s Matches (Rd 6)
12pm UTC+1
Judd Trump vs Jack Lisowski
Gary Wilson vs Neil Robertson
Shaun Murphy vs Elliot Slessor
Scott Donaldson vs Xiao Guodong
6pm UTC+1
Kyren Wilson vs Jimmy Robertson
Mark Williams vs Stuart Bingham
Ronnie O’Sullivan vs Zhang Anda
Si Jiahui vs Pang Junxu
Click here to view the full draw, including updated results.
Featured photo credit: WST
Times are a changing in the world of Snooker , I’m very fortunate to see this unfold with A Masters” in Saudi 🇸🇦! a winners 🏆 £500k cheque, very much in line with the price for the World Championships – also this carries many Ranking points for the 2024- 25 season – I look forward too many more tournaments being played in Saudi Arabia ” Rock on Tommy -“( AH) ..
First, thank for your comments, and is there a way to warch the tournement on tv since I have most of all chanel that exist.
Hi Jean, as far as I know the two places to watch the snooker is on Eurosport which is on sky but you maybe able to subscribe on it separately, check it out. The other channel is Discovery+, that’s £6.50 a month for standard viewing which shows the snooker but you could be charged a bit more for premium viewing Ask them hope this helps you.
Here is the full list of global broadcasters for this tournament:
Europe (including UK and Ireland)
Eurosport and discovery+
Saudi Arabia and MENA region
SSC
Shahid
China
Huya.com
CBSA-WPBSA Academy WeChat Channel
CBSA-WPBSA Academy Douyin
Hong Kong
Now TV
Malaysia and Brunei
Astro
Philippines
Tap
Taiwan
Sportcast
Thailand
True Sport
All other territories
matchroom.live
Thank you very much for reply, I will try to watch.
Yes, the Ding-Bingham match was very close. They were separated by a wafer!