BASILDON professional Stuart Bingham's hopes of staying alive in the 888.com sponsored world championship were on a knife-edge going into tonight's final session of his second round match.

After the opening session of his encounter with Cambridge's Joe Perry, an opponent he has struggled against in recent years, the new towner led 5-3 yesterday.

But Perry was in far better form as the match continued this morning and took the first three frames.

Bingham enjoyed his first success of the day to see the two men level at six-all going into the mid-session break.

But Perry, ranked 14th against the 22nd position of Bingham in the provisional list prior to the Sheffield action, took three of the next four to move into a 9-7 lead at the end of the second session.

It means that Perry goes into tonight's nine frame final session in the best of 25 match needing just four frames for victory. Bingham needs to triumph in six.

Victory and a place in the quarter-finals could see Bingham make the sport's elite top 16 for the first time in his 13-year career in the paid ranks.