John Higgins and Stuart Bingham reach last 16 of Six Red World Snooker Championship with valuable wins

Former world champions John Higgins and Stuart Bingham wasted little time in confirming their respective places in the last 16 of the Six Red World Championship in Bangkok.

2019 finalist Higgins needed to defeat local amateur Poramin Danjirakul in his final Group C match after following up a 5-2 win over Ken Doherty with a 5-1 loss to Hossein Vafaei on Monday evening at the Thammasat University Convention Centre in Pathum Thani.

But the Scot had few problems in racing to a 5-0 whitewash win on Tuesday that saw him advance to the knockout stage alongside Vafaei, who topped the group on maximum points with a 5-1 victory against the eliminated Doherty.

The 2015 world champion, Stuart Bingham, completed a 5-2 win over former Welsh Open winner Jordan Brown to ensure his progress with a match to spare in Group G after a 5-1 win over Egypt’s Mahmoud El Hareedy a day earlier.

Bingham lost 8-6 to Ricky Walden in the 2008 final and 8-7 to Ding Junhui in the Six Red title match eight years later.

“Anybody can pot five reds and five blacks, and you are 40 up with 35 on, so it is tough,” said Bingham on World Snooker Tour.

“You’ve got to be on your game and you’ve got to play sensible. You don’t need to make big breaks, you just need to win the frames.”

Zhang Anda secured his progress as Group A winner with a 5-0 whitewash of Ding, who joined him in the last 16 as the runner-up.

Defending champion Stephen Maguire was already eliminated after losing to Ding and Zhang on Monday before his 5-0 whitewash of former women’s world champion Mink Nutcharut.

The top two from each group progress to the last-16 knockout stage with the final contested on Saturday.

World champion Ronnie O’Sullivan is due to begin his campaign against Jimmy Robertson at 11:30am UK time on Tuesday.

He has been drawn in Group H alongside Robertson, world junior champion Stan Moody and local Thai favourite James Wattana at the 3,600-seat venue.

Latest results on Tuesday

Group C

• John Higgins 5-0 Poramin Danjirakul
• Hossein Vafaei 5-1 Ken Doherty

Group E

• Matthew Selt 4-5 Chris Wakelin
• Robert Milkins 0-5 Dechawat Poomjaeng

Group A

• Stephen Maguire 5-0 Mink Nutcharut
• Ding Junhui 0-5 Zhang Anda

Group G

• Jordan Brown 2-5 Stuart Bingham
• Mahmoud El Hareedy 1-5 Noppon Saengkham

Group B

• Zhou Yuelong 5-1 Jimmy White

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