By World Snooker Tour

Robertson.jpg

Neil Robertson forced himself to the verge of World Grand Prix glory after storming to an 8-0 advantage over Stuart Bingham after the first session of the final in Hong Kong.

The Thunder from Down Under requires just two more frames to win the event for a second time in his career, having previously beaten Graeme Dott in the final back in 2020.

Victory would see Robertson lift ranking silverware for the 25th time in his career. That would move him ahead of Mark Selby in the all-time winner’s list, elevating Robertson to seventh position.

The Melbourne cueman ended a two-year ranking title drought earlier this season at the BetVictor English Open, where he defeated China’s talented Wu Yize 9-7 in the final.

The £180,000 top prize would push 43-year-old Robertson up to 11th in the Johnstone's Paint World Rankings from 19th and all but secure his place as a seed in the season ending World Championship. He goes to third in the Johnstone’s Paint One Year list ahead of the Sportsbet.io Players Championship, where just the top 16 players of the campaign qualify.

Bingham is appearing in a landmark first ranking final in six years. He last made a title match in a ranking event back at the 2019 Gibraltar Open, where he beat Ryan Day. However, the Essex cueman is left with a mountain to climb if he wishes to win a seventh ranking title tonight.

The first four frames this afternoon saw Robertson craft contributions of 87, 104, 71 and 59 to lead 4-0 at the mid-session.

When play resumed, the Australian stole the fifth and sixth frames on the black and pink respectively, before 78 in the seventh made it 7-0. A break of 63 put Bingham in command in the eighth, but ruthlessly Robertson cleared with 66 to once again steal on the black.

The evening session will see Robertson bidding to complete the fourth ever whitewash in a two session ranking final. He inflicted that fate on Zhou Yuelong in 2020, when he won 9-0 in the final of the European Masters.

They return at 7:30pm to play the best of 19 encounter to a conclusion.