Bingham Knocked Out By Day

Ryan Day booked a quarter-final spot at the 918.com German Masters by scoring a 5-3 win over World Champion Stuart Bingham in Berlin.

Defeat for Bingham leaves him still waiting for his first title since becoming World Champion nine months ago, and also means that a player ranked outside the top 16 is sure to reach the final at the Tempodrom.

Welshman Day will now meet Kyren Wilson tonight, while the other quarter-final in the bottom half of the draw will see Mark Joyce face Luca Brecel.

Bingham held leads of 2-0 and 3-2, making breaks of 76 and 74. But he made too many unforced errors in the closing stages as world number 18 Day took the last three frames with top runs of 67 and 62.

“I didn’t score heavily today until the last two frames when I made two good breaks,” said Day, a semi-finalist in Berlin two years ago. “I’ve had flaws that have crept into my game over the last couple of seasons but I’ve been working hard on that and my long potting and safety have got better. A lot of players of a similar age to me have won tournaments including Stuart and Barry Hawkins so hopefully I’ll be next. I love playing in this venue because the crowds are great.”

Wilson, the Shanghai Masters champion, edged out Michael Holt 5-4, taking the deciding frame 77-13.

Joyce reached the third ranking event quarter-final of his career by beating Mark King 5-2. From 1-0 down, Walsall’s Joyce won five of the last six frames with top breaks of 64, 59, 105 and 104.

“That’s probably as well as I’ve ever played,” said world number 44 Joyce, whose last quarter-final came at the 2014 Haikou World Open. “Mark asked me afterwards if I ever miss a ball! I had a new practice room put into my club with a Star table recently and since then I’ve been practising really hard. It’s nice to see the results of that. If play like this someone will have to play well to beat me.”

Belgium’s 20-year-old Brecel saw off Kurt Maflin 5-3 with top breaks of 57, 69 and 72. “It was difficult because he put me under pressure, but I am playing consistently well at the moment,” said Brecel, a semi-finalist at last year’s Welsh Open.” I’ll have to be at my best tonight.”