World Open snooker day four review: Stuart Bingham impressive; John Higgins and Judd Trump scrape through
Stuart Bingham produced snooker of the very highest order to beat Mark Selby 5-2 and advance to the quarter-finals of the World Open.
After losing the first two frames of his encounter with in-form Mark Selby on Thursday, Bingham took the next five - a spell in which he made four centuries and a further break of 97.
The run, as good as you are ever likely to see, began with a break of 108, followed by that 97, and from 2-2 Bingham took the match away from his opponent with breaks of 114, 104 and 117.
In winning the English Open, Selby gave his opponent in the final no chance to get a foothold and he was handed similar treatment here, scoring just 16 points after an 86 break in frame two had briefly put him in the driving seat.
On this form, Bingham might well be the man to beat in China and he represents a daunting quarter-final opponent for John Higgins, who edged past Graeme Dott 5-4.
Higgins won by the same scoreline against Lu Ning earlier in the week and again had to dig deep here, recovering from 2-0, 3-2 and 4-3 down to triumph 5-4 after a 69 break in the decider.
Judd Trump was also a 5-4 winner, taking the final two frames to inflict a cruel defeat upon Joe Perry.
A tense final frame saw both players miss chances, and Trump snooker himself when poised to seal victory.
After a lengthy battle, it was the reigning world champion who opened up an opportunity only to then miss the pink, which was match ball, while playing right-handed down the rail.
Perry was left with a testing pink himself, needing both it and the black, and he could only rattle the jaws to present Trump with a second bite of the cherry, one he this time was able to take.
Trump goes on to face Michael Holt, who dumped out Ding Junhui after winning a scrappy affair 5-1.
On the other side of the draw, David Gilbert beat Mark Allen 5-3 as he again looks to secure his first ranking title.
Runner-up to Selby in Crawley, Gilbert has not let that latest disappointment stop him and from 2-1 down he got the better of Allen in a hard-fought contest in which his own high break was 77.
Next up for Gilbert is the dangerous Thepchaiya Un-Nooh, who beat Sunny Akani 5-3 with breaks of 51, 57, 62 and 74.
Kyren Wilson looked in excellent nick as he thrashed Jack Lisowski 5-1 in a high-quality evening encounter.
Wilson rattled in breaks of 77, 86 and 108 to race into a 3-0 lead, before Lisowski responded with a run of 81 to get on the board.
A second century from Wilson - this time 102 - ended hopes of a comeback and he followed it with a break of 72 to book a clash with Zhou Yuelong, a 5-2 winner against Ali Carter.
World Open: Thursday's schedule
- Scroll down for full tournament results
- All times local (GMT is +8 hours), best of 9 frames
Afternoon Session (1430)
TV: Eurosport
- Mark Selby 2-5 Stuart Bingham
- Graeme Dott 4-5 John Higgins
- Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 5-3 Sunny Akani
- David Gilbert 5-3 Mark Allen
Evening Session (1930)
TV: Eurosport
- Judd Trump 5-4 Joe Perry
- Michael Holt 5-1 Ding Junhui
- Kyren Wilson 5-1 Jack Lisowski
- Ali Carter 2-5 Zhou Yuelong