Stuart Bingham revealed that two people close to him died in the space of 24 hours before he was due to play in the World Grand Prix final. The 48-year-old suffered a heavy defeat at the hands of Neil Robertson after being whitewashed 10-0 in Hong Kong. However, the snooker star looked visibily emotional after the match as he paid tribute to his long-serving coach, Joe Lazarus, and his uncle Ray, both of whom died across the last two days.
“My goal was to get to the final, if someone had said I’d get to the final and get beat 10-0, I’d maybe gone ‘Nah. Let me have a frame!’ The final was a big match for me. It’s been a good week on the table for me,” Bingham said after the match. “But I’d like to give a shout out to Jack Lisowski, feeling for you mate, my friend Lee Fairbrother, feel for all of you. My local coach Joe Lazarus passed away this week and my uncle Ray passed away this morning, so it ain’t been a good week off the table. Shout out to them guys. But have to take the positives, Telford in a weeks’ time and I’ve got that. I want Neil in the draw, he ain’t going to be beat me 10-0 again!”
Bingham, who was close to tears and had to stop talking to compose himself, earned a round of applause from spectators inside the Kai Tak Arena. He broke down crying after his surprise semi-final victory over Judd Trump on Saturday, but was coy on what had caused him to become overwhelmed with emotion.
The former world champion paid tribute to his opponent Robertson, who secured breaks of 87, 104, 71, 59, 72 and 78 in the final to show his class. On another day, however, the scoreline could’ve been much closer as Bingham missed several opportunities to take charge of the frame.
Told by the interviewer that he can take positives from his performance, Bingham said: “It’s hard at the moment. But hats off to Neil, who took every chance today and had a little bit of a run at the right time.
“I had my chances and it could’ve easily been 5-5 if I took my chances. But Neil had some unbelievable clearances and the writing was on the wall when he went 8-0. I had always had that belief I could do something, but today it just wasn’t happening.”
“[It’s] for all the hard work I’ve been putting in over the last 18 months, I knew some big results were around the corner. And it’s proved to be the case this season,” Robertson said. “This week, I was hoping to win one match or two, so to come away winning is unbelievable.
“Today a lot went my way, I started really well in the first four frames. After that, I really did feel quite a few frames, had some amazing clearances. Like Stu said, it could’ve easily been 5-5 after 10 frames. Glad to see him back in the final and pushing into the top 16 again, I’m sure he’ll get there in no time.”