Stuart Bingham concedes that earning a place in the inaugural Coral Tour Championship in Llandudno has been on his mind ‘since Christmas’.

The former world champion took a big step towards being in the eight-man field when he defeated David Gilbert 6-4 to earn a quarter-final spot in the Players Championship in Preston on Wednesday.

Bingham climbed to seventh on the one-year ranking list, with the top eight after the Gibraltar Open set to contest the Tour Championship later this month.

This season’s English Open champion, Bingham took three frames in a row with breaks of 60, 71 and 68 to lead 3-1 having lost the opener to Gilbert.

His opponent matched that feat to win the next three frames and lead 4-3 but Bingham bounced back and a break of 57 in frame ten was enough for victory.

Bingham is set to face Mark Allen next at the Guild Hall and, having increased his hopes of Tour Championship berth, he is eyeing a better performance.

“The race to get to Llandudno has been on my mind since Christmas,” said Bingham. “It was a big match for both of us and a good win for me. I messed up a chance to go 4-1 up, then he had the momentum at 4-3. I just tried to dig in and eventually got it done. I’ll need to improve in my next match.”

Antrim’s Allen saw off Stephen Maguire 6-2 in his opener in Preston.

Bingham is 2.15 to defeat Allen on Thursday evening, with the former Masters champion favourite at 1.67 to book a last-four berth. Bingham is 7.00 to win the match 6-4.