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Ding Junhui

The 2008/09 season was a patchy one for Ding Junhui as he failed to get beyond the first round of four of the eight ranking events.
His best run came at the Royal London Watches Grand Prix in Glasgow, where he beat Jamie Burnett and Michael Holt to get to the quarter-finals, before losing to evential champion John Higgins.
Ding faced Higgins again at the Maplin UK Championship, and despite losing the last 16 match 9-4, he did have the consolation of making a 147 break to earn a £30,000 bonus. It was the second official maximum of his career – and both of those have been televised live on BBC.
Going into the Betfred.com World Snooker Championship, Ding was uncertain of his place among the top 16 for the following season, and needed to win his first match to make sure. As if that wasn’t enough pressure, he was drawn to play his closest rival for the unofficial position of ‘China’s No 1’ as he faced Liang Wenbo, with whom he shares practice facilities at the World Snooker Academy in Sheffield, the tie attracting a massive global audience estimated at 100 million.
The match, one of the most important of Ding’s career, looked to be slipping away from him when he lost four consecutive frames to go 8-7 behind, but he responded in the style of a true champion by winning the last three frames with breaks of 111, 91 and 63.
“Liang is a very attacking player but today he was very careful, focusing on every ball,” said Ding. “When he was 8-7 ahead he missed a crucial red. That allowed me to make a good clearance and after that I relaxed. I didn’t think about how many people were watching in China, I just concentrated on my game.”
His next match pitted him against seven-times Crucible champion Stephen Hendry, and Ding looked strong in the early stages but eventually fell to a 13-10 defeat. He finished the season two places down in the offical rankings, at No 13, but languishing 23rd in the provisional list going into the 2009/10 campaign.
Ding did enjoy an impressive run in the invitational Wuzhou International Jiangsu Classic in June, reaching the final in his home city of Wuxi before losing 6-0 to Mark Allen. He had won the tournament the previous season by beating Mark Selby 6-5 in the final.
Ding is the youngest player ever to win three ranking titles, and the only one other than John Higgins to do so before his 20th birthday.
His first title came at the 2005 China Open when he delighted his fans in Beijing by coming from 4-1 down to beat Hendry 9-5 in the final. His second came later that year at the UK Championship – his first major title on British soil and one which demonstrated to BBC Sport viewers the extent of his talent.
He conceded just 17 frames (winning 45) on his way to the final at the Barbican Centre in York. It was exuberant youth against experience and wisdom at the tournament’s conclusion and he comfortably got the better of Steve Davis, 30 years his senior, 10-6.
His third came at the 2006 Northern Ireland Trophy in Belfast, beating Paul Davies, Anthony Hamilton, John Higgins, Ken Doherty and Stephen Lee to reach the final then coming from 3-1 down to beat Ronnie O’Sullivan 9-6.
"I’m very happy tonight and pleased to equal John Higgins’ record," he said. "I want to get better in every match that I play."
Ding has become one of China’s most famous sportsmen, and is even set to have his life story told in a cartoon series. He is at the spearhead of an emerging army of Chinese players making an impact on the professional Tour.
In 2006 he came back from the Asian Games in Qatar, clutching a haul of three gold medals for the individual, doubles and team disciplines.
Ding won the World under-21 Championship at the age of 15, beating David John 11-9 in the final in Latvia.
In the same year, he won the Asian junior and senior titles, won a gold medal in the Asian Games and reached the semi-finals of the World Amateur Championship.
Many of Ding’s fellow pros have been full of praise for him, including Ronnie O’Sullivan who said: "If he carries on improving and gets a few more bits to his game he will be a multiple World Champion. Tennis has Federer, golf has Tiger Woods, Ding could do the same to snooker."
Ding’s favourite hobbies away from snooker are swimming and watching Jackie Chan movies. He also enjoys football -he supports Liverpool and enjoyed a backstage tour of Anfield in April 2007.

In December 2009, Ding confirmed his return to form by winning the Pukka Pies UK Championship. He beat John Higgins 10-8 in the final in Telford to win his second UK title and fourth ranking event.

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