Stuart Bingham is set for his defense of the English Open title and would be doing so on the back of winning the Championship League Group Two on Thursday.
The 43-year-old powered through the Group stage on Wednesday after shoving aside Gary Wilson, Jack Lisowski, Mark Selby, and Ryan Day. He then went on to defeat Wilson in the semis before strolling past Mark Selby in the finals with a 3-1 win.
That victory puts Stuart in the Championship League Winners’ Group next March, where he is poised to lock horns with Group One winner, Neil Robertson.
The Ball Run has this season been some miles shy of the remarkable games he’s put up in the world of snooker. The former World Champion’s best came in his only quarter-final run at the Six-red World Championship.
However, the 43-year-old is confident that he has found his best form and is in the right shape to defend the English Open title next week.
Stuart Bingham would be willing to work with this form when he gets into Crawley to take on Polish youngster, Kacper Filipiak, in the first round.
Though the Englishman is still strapped to the number 13 position in the world, he is down at number 52 on the one-year list. This further proves how complicated his season has been so far.
Bingham will face a host of competition on the way to landing the prize once again. While the prize fund has increased from what it was last year, the winner’s cheque stays put at £70,000.
The prestigious tournament will be attracting a host of faces, including Ronnie O’ Sullivan, who will be taking part in his first UK-based tournament of the term.
Ronnie has only participated in the Shanghai Masters so far this season but is headed on to Crawley. He will be looking to take off where he left-off, regaining the title he once won in 2017 when the tournament was held in Barnsley.
The Rocket is poised to trade the cue ball with Jamie O’Neil on Monday evening as they go head-to-head in their match-up in what is expected to be an exciting encounter.
Stuart Bingham is fancied at 1.05 to win his first game while, Kacper Filipiak is available at 9.57 to defeat Bingham.
Written by: Roland Arum