LONDON - Defending champion Ding Junhui of China was beaten by Stuart Bingham of England 5-6 in the semifinals of the Welsh Open at Newport on Saturday.

Bingham made brilliant breaks in the last two frames to defeat Ding Junhui in a thrilling semifinal.

Ding Junhui of China plays against Stuart Bingham of England in the semifinals of the Welsh Open in Newport, Feb 16, 2013. [Photo/Xinhua]

The world No 10 went ahead 2-0 and 4-2 but Ding, ranked 9th in the world, pulled back and made it 5-4 in the best-of-11 match.

Bingham, enjoying the best season of his career and chasing his fourth title having won the Premier League and two APTC events, produced a nerveless finish with runs of 93 and 108 as he fought back to book a place in the final at the Newport Center.

He will face Stephen Maguire on Sunday after the Scot defeated world number two Judd Trump 6-4 in the other semifinal.

"I can't believe how well I held myself together in the end," said Bingham. "When I missed the black at 4-2 I thought it was going to cost me but in the end I got the job done."

Ding said: "I didn't play as well as I did in other matches this week and I had some bad shot selection. I missed key shots to win frames and Stuart just took his chances. Those misses were stupid, like that easy red to the middle in the sixth frame. The blue in the last frame was quite close to the cue ball so it was difficult to see the angle.

"Stuart is a good player. His safety was good and he played better than me today - when I missed balls he scored heavily."

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