STUART Bingham will compete in the ninth ranking final of his career today.

The Bowers Gifford-based snooker star beat Stephen Maguire 6-3 in the semi-finals of the English Open to book his place in the final, where he will face Mark Davis.

Bingham and Davis will go head-to-head over 17 frames in Crawley, with the winner to collect the Steve Davis Trophy and £70,000 in prize winnings.

And Bingham, who is set to compete in the first ranking final since returning from a three-month ban for breaching betting rules, believes he was fortunate to see off Maguire.

“I don’t feel as if I played that well, I missed a lot of easy balls,” said the 42-year-old.

“I felt a bit of pressure out there and the scoreline flattered me. “When I looked at my half of the draw at the start of the week I could see it was very tough, so I’m happy to get to the final.”

Bingham came from 3-2 down to win the last four frames against Glasgow’s Maguire and reach his first ranking final since the 2017 European Masters.

As a result, Bingham is chasing his fifth career ranking title and first since the Welsh Open in February 2017.

Maguire made breaks of 69 and 72 to lead 2-1 before world number 15 Bingham levelled with a run of 76.

After the interval, Maguire regained the lead with a 93 before Bingham squared the match again with a 72.

A tight seventh frame went the way of 2015 world champion Bingham as he went ahead at 4-3. In frame eight, Maguire trailed 56-33 when he missed a tough pot on the final green along the side cushion. Bingham slotted in the green to extend his lead.

World number 16 Maguire looked set to win frame nine but missed the penultimate red to a top corner at 55-35.

Bingham made a cool 36 clearance to book his final place.