Stuart Bingham takes first APTC title beating Stephen Lee in final – Snooker Update
First event of the newly added Guotai Liqueur Asian Players Tour Championship (APTC) has finished at the Zhangjiagang Sports Center in Zhangjiagang, China featuring the winner of the 2011 Australian Goldfields Open, Stuart Bingham of England as the Champion.
The Englishman was up against the winner of the 2011-12 Players Tour Championship (PTC) Grand Finals, Stephen Lee in the final and defeated him by the score line of 4-3. The clash proceeded as expected because the pair had shown great performance throughout
the tournament to make their way into the advance stages.
The opening frame of the final encounter was taken by the World Number 16 Bingham with a classy half century break of 51 points to grab a lead of 1-0. Lee bounced back brilliantly into the game with back-to-back frame wins with the highest break of 67 points.
At the end of fifth frame, Lee was leading the game by the score line of 3-2.
The Basildon potter sprang back with a classy snooker break of 63 points and won the sixth frame to pull level by the score line of 3-3 and dragged the game into the decider frame. The final frame finished in favour of Bingham and he claimed the APTC Event
1 title. The Englishman was feeling quite confident after winning the title and believes he will perform better in the upcoming events,
While speaking to the local media, Bingham said, “Last year I started the season well then fell away, but this time I want to keep the form going. I came out here for the three events just aiming to win one of them, and I've got a trophy already so anything
else is a bonus. I'm full of confidence now and I want to do well in the next two events.”
The 36-year-old added, “It's great to already have a place guaranteed in the PTC Grand Finals because I missed it last year. But I'll probably still play in all the other PTC events because I'm the type to go anywhere and play in anything.”
The event was a new addition made by the snooker supervising association, World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA) during the 2012 World Snooker Championship at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield. The World Snooker Chairman Barry Hearn
decided to launch three new PTC events in the Asian territory which was welcomed by the snooker critics.
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