Stuart Bingham and Joe Perry looked set for a nailbiting battle to reach the quarter-finals of the World Championship in Sheffield.

Bingham, who knocked six-time champion Steve Davis out in the first round, resumed this morning with a 5-3 lead only for Perry to win six of the morning's eight frames to take a 9-7 lead

It was a largely scrappy affair, Perry's break of 55 in the 10th frame the highlight, and Bingham was grateful to claim the 12th frame to go into the mid-session interval level at 6-6.

Bingham fired a break of 73 to go back in front at 7-6 but Perry again won three frames in a row with the aid of breaks of 78 and 82.

That gave the 33-year-old from Cambridgeshire, a quarter-finalist back in 2004, a two frame lead going into the final session with 13 the target for a last-eight meeting with either Stephen Maguire or Neil Robertson.

FIRST SESSION

Stuart Bingham leads fellow Englishman Joe Perry 5-3 in the last 16 of the World Championship in Sheffield.

The Essex cueman moved 50 ahead in the opening frame only for Cambridgeshire potter Perry to claw the gap back and force Bingham to clear the table if he was to claim the lead.

He got as far as the pink, which he left over the pocket; however by a stroke of luck the black snookered Perry and he was able to secure the frame with his next visit.

Bingham did not go behind at any point in the first session, but was pegged back to level on two occasions.

The first arrived in the following frame, Perry's 43 up to the black enough after a couple of substantial visits from each player. He slammed the final ball off the table with excessive power, slinging his cue onto the table before leaving for a short break in a gesture that threw down a gauntlet to Bingham.

He responded by retaking the lead with a pair of solid runs but was pegged back again by a Perry 48, with neither man yet to score a half-century but having recorded two 40-odd breaks apiece.

Bingham then took control, securing that first 50 - and almost a century - with an assured 98 to move 3-2 ahead. The advantage was doubled after a close exchange in the next frame.

Perry opened with a 52 in the seventh but it did not prove sufficient, a 49 clearance doing the job for Bingham, who moved three ahead with one frame left in the session.

Perry took an important final frame with a solid 65 break, the score 5-3 heading into the second session of the best-of-25 match.

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Sporting Life / Eurosport