Bingham Holds off Holt Fightback

Stuart Bingham survived a brave fightback from Michael Holt to book his place in the last four of the International Championship in Daqing.

The world number two also secured a spot at next month’s Champion of Champions event in Coventry by virtue of the one-year list.

Bingham looked set for a brisk evening’s work, as he charged into a 4-0 lead. The 2015 World Champion made breaks of 87, 49, 80 and 80 as he took a clean sweep of the frames in the first mini-session.

However, Holt put up a steady resistance, claiming the next four in a row to dramatically level the scores. Bingham was unwavering and hit straight back with a magnificent break of 131 to move one away from victory at 5-4. The Hitman took the match to a decider, but it was Bingham who got over the line to book a last four clash with Mark Selby. The pair met in an epic semi-final at the recent Shanghai Masters and it was Selby who prevailed.

The Jester from Leicester guaranteed his progress with a 6-3 defeat of Joe Perry.

After losing the opening frame, Selby turned up the heat on the world number 12 with back to back century runs of 132 and 127. He then won a further three frames in a row to coast into a 5-1 advantage. Perry did close the gap, but the deficit proved too much and Selby ran out a 6-3.