Ding Junhui Totally Explained

Everything about Ding Junhui totally explained

Ding Junhui (; sometimes referred to as Jun-hui Ding in the West; born April 1 1987) is a Chinese snooker player, born in Yixing, Jiangsu (near Shanghai), and is now a resident of England during the snooker season. Although naturally gifted, he's known for his fragile temperament and inconsistency.

Early career

Ding started playing snooker at the age of nine, when his father took him to the Chinese national team training centre near Shanghai. His father persuaded his mother to sell their house in order for Ding to continue playing snooker as a career. He practices for eight hours every day.
   In 2003, he became the number one rank player in China.
   Ding shot to international prominence in 2002, when he won the Asian Under-21 Championship, the Asian Championship and the IBSF World Under-21 Championship. He was unable to progress much in 2003, as both the Asian Championship and Under-21 Championship had to be cancelled because of the SARS virus crisis, and was awarded a Main Tour concession by the WPBSA, which enabled him to turn professional in September 2003. before narrowly losing 6-5 in the second round to experienced top player Stephen Lee after holding a 2-5 lead over him. His performance favourably impressed many commentators, who since then rated him a likely future World Champion.
   In March 2005, he celebrated his 18th birthday by reaching the final of the China Open in Beijing, along the way defeating world top-16 ranked players Peter Ebdon, Marco Fu and Ken Doherty. In that final he played against then world no.-3-ranked Stephen Hendry, whom he beat by 9 frames to 5, to score his first ranking tournament win.
   In December 2005, he beat another crop of (now former) world top-16 players, namely Jimmy White, the late Paul Hunter and Joe Perry once more on his way to reaching the final of another major tournament, the UK Championship at the Barbican Centre in York. This time he met the resurgent snooker legend Steve Davis in the final, and defeated him by ten frames to six, in doing so becoming the first player from outside Britain or Ireland to win that particular title. Following this victory, his world ranking was provisionally raised from 60 (62 at the start of the season) to 31. At the end of the season, he was ranked 27th. This means that now he doesn't have to pre-qualify for various tournaments, and only has to win one match to reach the World Championships in Sheffield.

2006 and 2007 In the 2006 China Open he gave his home crowd a good run for their money, but lost 6-2 to the eventual winner Mark J. Williams in the semi-finals.
   On 19 August, 2006, he beat Stephen Lee 6-1, and reached the final of the Northern Ireland Trophy, meeting Ronnie O'Sullivan in the final the following day. He beat O'Sullivan 9-6 to claim his third ranking tournament win, becoming only the third person ever to do so before his twentieth birthday, and subsequently lost to his practice partner and eventual winner, Peter Ebdon, by 9 frames to 5.
   On 14 January, 2007, Ding made a 147 break in the opening match of the Saga Insurance Masters against Anthony Hamilton. It was the first maximum in the competition since that of Kirk Stevens in 1984, which was also the only one up to then., becoming the second youngest player to reach a Masters final. In it he made a confident start by winning the first two frames. However, O'Sullivan went on to produce what many regard as one of the finest displays of snooker ever seen on television. His dominance, along with the boisterous and hostile nature of the crowd, left Ding in tears during the twelfth frame, trailing 8-3 in the best of 19 frames contest. The latter appeared resigned to defeat, taking little time to consider his shot selection, and after the frame shook hands with O'Sullivan, after which the two walked arm in arm to the dressing room area, but because it had only been the last frame before the mid-session interval, and so indeed not the very last frame of the match, no-one knew if he'd conceded the match, believed the match was over or was just congratulating O'Sullivan on his formidable play. He ultimately lost the match on the next frame, and later claimed that he thought the match was indeed a "best of 17".
   He was next bumped out of two tournaments in a row in the first rounds, losing 5-2 to Stephen Maguire in the first round of the Malta Cup and 5-1 to Jamie Cope in the opening round of the Welsh Open. By 14 March, 2007, however, Ding had qualified for the televised final stages of the World Championships for the first time by beating Mark Davis in the final qualifying round. However, his losing streak in ranking tournaments that season continued with a 5-3 first round loss to Barry Hawkins in the China Open and a 10-2 loss against Ronnie O'Sullivan in the World Snooker Championship, but he still ended the season ranked in ninth place, his highest ever ranking. In September 2007, he joined other top snooker players and other stars from film, sport, television and music at inter-dealer broker BGC's 3rd Annual Charity Day to help raise funds for a number of charities.
Currently, Ding Junhui holds the record for the most unanswered points (495) in any snooker tournament. This was during the Betfred Premier League against Stephen Hendry.

Tournament Wins

Ranking event wins

Further Information

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