Stuart Bingham
| Name | Date of Birth | Country |
|---|---|---|
| Stuart Bingham | 21-05-1976 | England |
Stuart Bingham (born 21 May 1976) is an English professional snooker player and a former World Snooker Champion.
As an amateur, he won the 1996 IBSF World Snooker Championship, but then spent many seasons as a journeyman professional before improving his form to become a top-ranked player in his thirties. He first entered the top 32 in the world rankings for the 2006/2007 season, and first reached the top 16 during the 2011/2012 season.
Bingham won the first ranking title of his career at the 2011 Australian Goldfields Open and his second ranking title at the 2014 Shanghai Masters. He followed this by winning the World Championship in 2015, which British media said "completed an astonishing transition from journeyman to king of the Crucible". With that, he joined Ken Doherty as the only players to have won world titles at both amateur and professional levels.He claimed a fourth ranking title by winning the 2017 Welsh Open.
Bingham has also been runner-up in three other ranking events, the 2012 Wuxi Classic, the 2013 Welsh Open, and the 2016 World Grand Prix. He has also won the non-ranking 2012 Premier League Snooker and the 2015 Championship League. A prolific break-builder, he has compiled more than 300 century breaks during his career, including three maximum breaks.
In 1999, Bingham reached the quarter-final stage of the Welsh Open, beating the world champion John Higgins along the way, and later in the season caused a major shock by defeating defending champion Stephen Hendry 10–7 in the first round of the 2000 World Championship, ranked a lowly 97 in the world. He also qualified for the tournament in 2002 by beating Nigel Bond. Bingham played Ken Doherty in the first round and almost made the fifth 147 break at the Crucible, but missed the final pink in an attempt that would have been worth £167,000. He went on to lose the match 8–10.
In the 2004/2005 season his best runs were two last-sixteen runs in ranking events, including losing in a final frame decider to Ding Junhui in the China Open.
In 2005/2006, he had one of his most consistent seasons. He reached the quarter-finals of the Grand Prix tournament, beating then world champion Shaun Murphy along the way.He got to the same stage of the UK Championship, losing in a final frame decider to Joe Perry.He also won the qualifying tournament for the Masters, scoring a 147 break along the way. He then beat Steve Davis in the preliminary round, before losing to Peter Ebdon 4–6. At the start of 2006 a top 16 rankings position looked a possibility, however defeat to Ryan Day in qualifying for the World Championship ended his chances of doing so, although he did move up into the top 32 for the first time.2006/2007 was not so strong, and he again failed to qualify for the World Championship, though he did achieve the unique feat of winning the Masters qualifying tournament for a second successive season, defeating Mark Selby 6–2 in the final.
He made a good start to the 2007/08 season, reaching the quarter finals of the Shanghai Masters, losing 5–0 to Mark Selby. After finishing 4th in his group in the Grand Prix he then lost his first match in the Northern Ireland Trophy. In the Maplin UK Championship he managed to reach the last 16, losing to Shaun Murphy 9–3, after victories over Fergal O'Brien and Steve Davis again. He also reached the same stage of the Welsh Open, beating Stephen Maguire 5–4, after being 3–0 down, in the last 32, but subsequently lost 5–2 to Joe Perry in the last 16. He qualified for the World Championship with a comfortable 10–3 win over Adrian Gunnell, and then he beat Steve Davis once again in the first around 10–8 (this after having led 8–3 and been pegged back at 8–8), only to lose to Joe Perry again in the second round 13–9. 2008/2009 was a comparative disappointment for Bingham, who lost his first match in four of the eight events. He was drawn against number 1 Ronnie O'Sullivan in the first round of the 2009 World Championship, losing 10–5.
Bingham reached the Quarter final stages of the 2010 UK Championship having defeated O'Sullivan 9–6 and then Marco Fu 9–2 in previous rounds before losing 9–7 to Northern Ireland's Mark AllenLater that season, Bingham qualified once again for the World Championship and beat former champion Peter Ebdon 10–8 in the first round. In the second round he went up against Ding Junhui and played well to go 12–9 up but Ding produced a great comeback to win 13–12. Had Bingham won the match, he would have ended the season ranked inside the world's top 16.