By Luke Baker

WORLD champion Stuart Bingham admits he was relieved to get over his Masters hoodoo after reaching the quarter-finals of the event for the first time on Sunday evening.

Bingham had only won one of seven previous matches in the competition – a wildcard clash with Steve Davis on 2006 – but beat Ding Junhui 6-4 at London’s Alexandra Palace.

The Basildon potter’s break of 120 in frame three, where he missed the final yellow for a possible 147, was a rare moment of truly top-class snooker in an otherwise turgid match as both men continued their struggles with form this season.

But the 39-year-old claims he was content that he did what he had to do in order to get over the line.

“Sometimes you’ve got to scrap it out and that’s exactly what I’ve done,” said Bingham.

“You can see that Ding is struggling, I don’t know how many times he ran out of position.

“I don’t know if he brought me down or what but it turned into a scrappy affair but I’m over the moon to be in the quarter-finals.

“It’s a big milestone for me to win a game here and also to get a century here. I thought my first hundred was going to be a 147 but it wasn’t to be.

“I had a little patch where I made a hundred then a 60 in the next frame, so it’s there, I just need to bring it out more often.”

Next up for Bingham is a Friday-evening clash with either John Higgins or Liang Wenbo and the world number two admits he will have to produce a better display to keep his Masters adventure going.

“It’s going to be tough. I’ll have to pick my game up from there,” added Bingham.

“I’m driving home tonight but I’ll be doing the normal things like the school run in the morning to drop my son off and then it will be back to the practice table.

“That’s all I can do and hopefully I’ll put on a better performance in the next round.”

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