Stuart Bingham is still thankful for an insult he received from Mark Allen nearly 12 years ago, saying the Pistol changed his life with a dig made in Australia in 2011.
The pair met in the quarter-finals of the 2011 Australian Open at a time when Bingham had no ranking titles on his CV and struggled to get to the business end of tournaments.
Allen accused his rival of having ‘no bottle’ ahead of their meeting in Bendigo and it backfired, not just then but for years to come.
Bingham won that match in Australia and went on to lift the trophy, which became the first of many titles, including the World Championship in 2015 and Masters in 2020.
While the Englishman clearly always had the talent, it was being riled up by Allen that changed his career for the better and Bingham is still grateful for it.
‘It’s all water under the bridge now and we can have a laugh about it, but down in Australia he said before our quarter-final match that I had no bottle,’ said Bingham.
‘That probably changed my life.
‘I think I’d lost something like eight or nine quarter-finals going into that one and it was like a match-play event, just me and him and obviously I came through that and ended up lifting the trophy. My career has blossomed since.
‘We have a good laugh about it now and I thank him all the time.’
Allen has since admitted he was wrong about Bingham and the pair get on well, with Ballrun unfazed by many things as he is a great believer in destiny.
‘I always think that if your name is on that trophy, it’s on it. I was meant to win this World Championship one day and it happened when it happened,’ he said.
‘I felt like I could have done it 10-15 years earlier but it took me all that time probably for my game to grow.
‘I always think in life, it’s set in stone, whatever is meant to happen. I was meant to win the Worlds, I was meant to win the Masters.
‘Am I meant to win the Worlds again? We’ll see.’
Bingham and Allen meet over three session from Thursday to Saturday for a place in the Crucible quarter-finals.
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