World number 21 Stuart Bingham gained some consolation for his early exit from the UK Championships last week by flying over to Holland and winning the Dutch Open with a 6-3 victory over another top 32 player, Joe Swail…
Indeed despite it taking place during the same week as the UK Championship, there was quite a good field as Stuart and Joe were joined by fellow professionals Mark King, Tom Ford, Daniel Wells, Matthew Couch, Barry Pinches, Andy Lee and Stefan Mazrocis.
While Stuart sailed through the top half of the draw to reach the final with the loss of just three frames, the bottom half was fiercely contested and contained a number of close matches. In the quarters Joe Swail and Mark King edged out Matthew Couch and Tom Ford respectively, both by 4-3 scorelines before Joe got the better of Mark 5-3 in the semi.
The final was one step too far though as perhaps Stuart’s freshness proved the difference as he came out a 6-3 winner. It looks to have been a good final though as with breaks of 51, 91 and 64 from Stuart and 105, 85 and 104 from Swail, both were scoring well.
Hopefully Stuart can push on now and do well in the remaining three events of the season, moving him into the top 16 for the first time in his career…