 Complete the following phrase:  In 1996, Bingham won both the English Amateur Championship and the World Amateur Championship. The following season, he reached the final of the 1997 World Amateur Championship, but lost in a to Marco Fu. In 1999, he played professionally on the World Snooker Tour and reached the quarter-final stage of the Welsh Open, defeating the world champion John Higgins along the way, and later in the season defeated defending champion Stephen Hendry 107 in the first round of the 