STUART Bingham is adamant the positives are there despite missed opportunities costing him a place in the Masters final.

The Basildon cueman had reached the semi-finals at London’s Alexandra Palace for the first time in his career but lost an error-strewn affair 6-3 to Ronnie O’Sullivan.

Bingham pinched the opening frame with a 63 break and despite having the first chance in most of the next five frames, found himself 5-1 down thanks to numerous misses.

The world champion rallied to narrow the deficit to 5-3 before five-time Masters champion O’Sullivan finally fell over the line, leaving Bingham frustrated.

“I’m disappointed because he started to run away with it a bit. At 3-1, I probably could have been 3-1 up myself,” explained Bingham.

“Then after the break I’ve had chances and was 53 in front with 51 on in one frame but lost that and that could have easily been for 3-3 rather than me being 5-1 down.

“When you’re playing people like Ronnie you’ve got to take your chances and if you don’t, you’ll fall behind in the match which you can’t afford to do.

“I’m definitely going to take positives out of this – it’s the furthest I’ve been in the this event and I felt comfortable out there in the end even against Ronnie.

“It felt like I deserved to be out there, so I will take positives. I only played about 75 or 80 per cent of my best, if that, and I’ve still made the semi-final, so I’ll keep working and hopefully push on for the rest of the season.”

O’Sullivan appeared to become frustrated as Bingham closed the gap to 5-3 and the 39-year-old had a chance to move within one frame of ‘The Rocket’.

But O’Sullivan potted a spectacular long red before clearing up to book his place in the final against Barry Hawkins on Sunday and Bingham acknowledges his rival is a tough man to beat when he has nothing to lose.

“He missed a few and I punished him to get a couple of frames back but he started to have a look about him that he didn’t care,” added Bingham.

“When he’s like that it’s very hard because he’s going to go for everything and with how good he is, he’ll get a lot of them. He’s cleared up well in the final frame after that fantastic red and that’s Ronnie.”

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