DEFENDING champion Stuart Bingham shrugged off Shaun Murphy to book his place back in the semi-finals of the Masters in Milton Keynes.

Bingham clinched a gruelling affair 6-3 after a marathon tussle whose highlight was a 133 he made in the second frame to haul level at 1-1.

Both players were guilty of missed chances and none proved more important than Murphy’s missed yellow in the fourth frame which enabled Bingham to pull back from 58 points behind to level at 2-2.

A 91 in the next frame saw Bingham nudge ahead and he extended his lead only for Murphy to belatedly discover his form with a break of 70 reduce the deficit back to a single frame.

Bingham clinched a 47-minute eighth frame on the colours and took the next in two visits to win the match and book a last-four clash with Yan Bingtao or Stephen Maguire.