Neil Robertson coasted to the World Grand Prix title with a resounding 10-0 destruction of Stuart Bingham in Sunday’s final in Hong Kong.
It’s the Australian’s second piece of silverware from the 2024/25 campaign following his glory at the English Open in September.
Success for the 43 year-old takes his career tally of ranking titles to an impressive 25 – alone in seventh on the all-time list ahead of Mark Selby and one behind Mark Williams.
Selby and Williams were two players who Bingham beat en route to reaching the final showdown, while he also upset world number one Judd Trump in the last four on Saturday.
But the former world champion was completely out of sorts against Robertson and seemed to be suffering from struggles with his timing and technique.
Robertson began the title-deciding contest strongly and quickly reached the interval with a 4-0 cushion thanks to breaks of 87, 104, 71, and 59.
The remaining four frames of the opening session could have gone either way, but the Melbourne man managed to take them all.
Bingham had numerous chances in each of the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth frames but couldn’t accumulate enough points to get a frame on the board.
Robertson ruthlessly seized full advantage, capitalising on his opponent’s mistakes with clearances of 72, 78, and 66.
A big crowd assembled at the Kai Tak Arena for the evening session, although there were still several empty seats in keeping with the lower-than-expected turnout throughout the week’s play.
Those who did attend unfortunately didn’t have much of the final left to savour.
The pattern continued with Bingham getting in first in the ninth frame before wasting numerous opportunities and Robertson pinching it on the black to move to within one of lifting the trophy.
The former world number one didn’t have to wait long to complete the job, sealing a famous whitewash win in the tenth frame.
It marks the second time Robertson has triumphed with a bagel scoreline in a ranking final, adding to his 9-0 victory over Zhou Yuelong to capture the 2020 European Masters.
With the £180,000 champion’s cheque in his back pocket, Robertson will comprehensively rejoin the top 16 in the world rankings.
That will come as a particular relief to the 2010 world champion given the fact he missed out on qualification for the Crucible Theatre a year ago.
Now back up to number 11 in the official two-year standings – and third on the one-year list – Robertson will have no such worries for the foreseeable future.
After suffering a slide down the pecking order amid a dramatic dip in form between 2022 and 2024, he is now firmly back where he belongs at snooker’s top table.
Robertson joins a high-profile selection of champions in 2025 so far that also includes Shaun Murphy (Masters), Kyren Wilson (German Masters), Mark Selby (Welsh Open, Championship League), and John Higgins (World Open).
With so many of the bigger names seemingly in form – and not forgetting world number one Judd Trump – it promises to be an exciting climax to the campaign.
Next up will be the Players Championship where the best 16 players from this season’s money list will battle for another lucrative prize.
Bingham will be immensely disappointed by his performance in the World Grand Prix final but can take solace in the fact that he did enough this week to earn a spot in Telford.
Robertson, meanwhile, will head to the season’s third-last ranking tournament brimming with confidence.
2025 World Grand Prix Draw
Round of 32
Judd Trump 4-2 Gary Wilson
Jack Lisowski 4-2 Zhang Anda
Hossein Vafaei 4-3 Si Jiahui
Xu Si 4-3 Ding Junhui
Stuart Bingham 4-2 Mark Williams
Wu Yize 4-0 Pang Junxu
Jimmy Robertson 4-2 Mark Allen
Mark Selby 4-3 Jackson Page
Xiao Guodong 4-3 Jak Jones
Lei Peifan 4-2 Elliot Slessor
David Gilbert 4-3 Chris Wakelin
Neil Robertson 4-0 Yuan Sijun
Barry Hawkins 4-1 Tom Ford
Shaun Murphy 4-3 Ben Woollaston
John Higgins 4-3 Ali Carter
Kyren Wilson 4-3 Matthew Selt
Round of 16 (bo7)
Judd Trump w/o Jack Lisowski
Hossein Vafaei 4-3 Xu Si
Stuart Bingham 4-2 Wu Yize
Mark Selby 4-2 Jimmy Robertson
Xiao Guodong 4-3 Lei Peifan
Neil Robertson 4-1 David Gilbert
Shaun Murphy 4-1 Barry Hawkins
John Higgins 4-2 Kyren Wilson
Quarter-Finals
Judd Trump 5-0 Hossein Vafaei
Stuart Bingham 5-4 Mark Selby
Neil Robertson 5-3 Xiao Guodong
Shaun Murphy 5-3 John Higgins
Semi-Finals
Stuart Bingham 6-3 Judd Trump
Neil Robertson 6-5 Shaun Murphy
Final
Neil Robertson 10-0 Stuart Bingham
Featured image credit: WST
