Stuart Bingham joins exclusive snooker club after landmark win at Northern Ireland Open

Bingham got his campaign at the Waterfront Hall in Belfast underway with a 4-2 opening round win over qualifier Yao Pengcheng. The former World Champion moves through to the last 32 where he will face Ka Wai Cheung, the conqueror of Ronnie O’Sullivan earlier in the day.

The successful result for Bingham represented his 1,000th match win in professional competition, becoming only the sixth player in snooker history to achieve the landmark feat.

The Englishman joins an exclusive club containing John Higgins, Mark Williams, Mark Selby, Ronnie O’Sullivan, and Judd Trump. All six have won snooker’s ultimate prize at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield.

A winner of the English, and world amateur snooker championships, Bingham turned professional in 1995 and has remained on the top-flight ever since.

Bingham won several minor titles - including back-to-back Masters qualifying events - but didn't fully blossom until professional snooker was revolutionised by Barry Hearn's administration around 17 years ago.

Thriving under the new, busy schedule of events, Bingham reached his maiden ranking event semi-final at the 2011 Australian Open, but didn't stop there, coming back from 8-5 down in the final to pip Mark Williams, 9-8, for his maiden title.

'Ball Run' went on to claim several Asian Players Tour Championship/Tour events, win the Premier League on debut in 2012, and his second ranking title at the 2014 Shanghai Masters.

Bingham's greatest moment in the sport arrived in 2015 when he eliminated Ronnie O'Sullivan and Judd Trump in consecutive rounds before defeating Shaun Murphy, 18-15, in the final to win the World Snooker Championship title.

To date, Bingham has collected six ranking accolades in his career, and snooker's most prestigious invitational event, the Masters.

In each of the previous two seasons, Bingham has appeared in a ranking event final (2025 World Grand Prix, 2025 Snooker Shoot Out), and despite being aged 50, he is currently ranked 19th in the world and looking to get back into the elite top 16 bracket.

Bingham is also one of the heaviest scorers the sport has ever seen, with well over 600 centuries on the top tier to his name. Nine of those have been maximum 147 breaks - only four players have constructed more.

At last week's Pink Ribbon Pro-Am charity event, Bingham completed a feat of green baize perfection, and he’ll be hoping for some more bulking scoring at the Waterfront this week.

To view the full draw, results, schedule, and other information from the 2026 Northern Ireland Open, visit our tournament information centre here.