September was a quiet month for snooker with the Shanghai Masters being the only major tournament on the calendar, but the outstanding performer and eventual winner of the Shanghai Masters was Stuart Bingham. Picking up his second ranking title, Stuart was rampant at times during the week, especially in his 10-3 thrashing of Mark Allen in the final. He was also impressive in his 6-4 defeat of Ding Junhui in the semi-finals having already beaten Li Hang, Dominic Dale and Alan McManus. Stuart didn’t let up at the end of the month either as he made sure of qualification for the International Championship winning a tough match against Michael Wasley 6-4.
This was the best of Stuart Bingham’s September:
Stuart Bingham 10-3 Mark Allen – The final of the Shanghai
Masters was an incredibly one sided one in the favour of Bingham as he blasted
into a 4-0 advantage early in the piece thanks to breaks of 99, 46 and 68.
Contributions of 97, 69 and 41 helped Allen back into it winning three of the
next four to only trail 3-5, though Bingham inflicted a killer blow to win the
final frame of the session after both players had good chances to do so. After
the break between sessions Allen was playing very poorly and Stuart was able to
take advantage of the series of chances he was given to win the first two of
the session to go two away from the title at 8-3. Finally, breaks of 57 and 81
were enough for Stuart Bingham to finish the job and win the Shanghai Masters
final without going to another mid-session interval with a 10-3 demolition job.
Stuart Bingham 6-4 Ding Junhui – Things were much tougher
for Ball run in the semi-finals against home favourite Ding Junhui, who took an
early 2-0 lead with the help of a well-made 69 in the second. An 87 from Stuart
got him back in it before a 45 in the fourth helped Ding to a 3-1 interval
lead. After the break, a run of 55 from Bingham closed the gap again at 2-3,
before the Chinaman won a scrappy sixth to lead 4-2. From here though Stuart
found an extra couple of gears to win all of the next four frames, forging
breaks of 63, 59, 41 and 97 to produce a brilliant comeback and win the match
6-4 to get into the final which he won so comfortably.
Stuart Bingham is easily one of the most improved players over the last 3 or 4 seasons and it is simply because of the excellent attitude that he shows towards the game he plays and loves so much. Snooker isn’t just a job for Stuart and, despite how tough it is for him to leave his wife and children for weeks on end at times, he plays in as many events as he possibly can and his success on the Asian Tour in particular is down to the fact that he enters most of these AT events. At the end of the day, to win events you have to be entered in the first place and a lot of players hovering at around the 30 or 40 mark in the rankings could learn from Bingham if they wish to step up to the elite level that he is at now. He has since showed that he has added an element of consistency to his game now thanks to his work with coach Steve Feeney, and sometimes to improve in this game you can’t be afraid to adopt new strategies and techniques. Consecutive semi-finals in the UK Championships is reward for his hard work and dedication to snooker, and the next step for him is to go and win a big UK event having come close in the UK Championships there and the 2013 Welsh Open. All credit though to Stuart though for turning himself into a top player and showing the guys further down the rankings that transition can be made if you do the right things.
Stuart Bingham has to be a strong contender for my overall player of the year award, but there are so many top contenders and i'll reveal another tomorrow when I look back at October.
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