Stuart Bingham beats Tom Ford to set up Jamie Cope clash (From Echo)

Stuart Bingham beats Tom Ford to set up Jamie Cope clash

2:08pm Thursday 20th September 2012 in Sport By James Colasanti

STUART Bingham booked his place in the last 16 of the Shanghai Masters after edging out Tom Ford in a 5-4 victory.

Fresh from his Premier League debut, the world number 11 from Vange kept his nerve to win a final frame and book a second round clash with Jamie Cope today.

It was nip and tuck between Bingham and world number 30 Ford until the former won a safety battle on the last red in the deciding frame and then made a decisive half century to progress at the full ranking event.

Bingham, who flew out for the event in China late last week, tweeted afterwards: “Get in! A very tough win against Tom Ford. Would have won 5-3 if I hadn’t twitched a last red, but I’m happy with the win.”

Cope, 27, caused the upset of the tournament so far when he dumped out defending champion and world number one Mark Selby in the first round yesterday.

Cope said: “I won a few close frames which could have gone either way and that was the difference.”

Stephen Maguire is also through to the second round after beating Peter Ebdon 5-3. There were two wins for the Chinese wild cards as Jin Long edged out Jimmy Robertson 5-4 and Chen Feilong saw off Fergal O’Brien 5-2.

And Ricky Walden boosted his hopes of winning a second consecutive ranking event in China by edging out Steve Davis 5-4.

Bingham’s match with Cope will be screened on Eurosport this morning.