Ding Junhui

This is a Chinese name; the family name is Ding.

Ding Junhui
Tournament wins
Ding Junhui
Born	1 April 1987 (1987-04-01) (age 23), Yixing, Wuxi, Jiangsu, China
Sport country	Chinese
Nickname	Star of the East Enter The Dragon The Chinese Sensation
Professional	2003 – present
Highest ranking	9 (2007/08)
Current ranking	13
Career winnings	GB£500,725^[1]
Highest break	147 (2 times)
Ranking	4
Non-ranking	2

Ding Junhui (simplified Chinese: 丁俊晖; pinyin: Dīng Jùnhuī; born 1 April 1987) is a Chinese professional snooker player. Ding Junhui is already China's most successful player ever having become only the second teenager, after John Higgins, to win three ranking titles.^[2] A prolific breakbuilder when on form, it took him only five seasons to compile a century of centuries, a record he shares with Ronnie O'Sullivan.^[3]

In December 2006, he enrolled at Shanghai Jiao Tong University to study Business Administration and Management.^[4] He is a resident of England during the snooker season. He is good friends with fellow countryman Liang Wenbo and they are training partners in Sheffield World Snooker Academy.^[5]

1 Career
2 Achievements
3 Performance timeline
4 Tournament wins and career rankings
5 In popular culture
6 References
7 Sources
8 External links

Career

Early life

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.^[6]

Ding shot to international prominence in 2002, when he won the Asian Under-21 Championship^[7], the Asian Championship^[7] and the IBSF World Under-21 Championship (became the youngest ever winner of the World Under-21 Championship at the age of fifteen).^[7]. 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, but he was a semi-finalist in the IBSF World Under-21 championship^[7], and was awarded a Main Tour concession by the WPBSA, which enabled him to turn professional in September 2003^[7]. In 2003, he became the number one ranked player in China.^[8]

2004 and 2005

In February 2004, Ding was awarded a wildcard entry to the Masters in London, where, in the first round, he defeated the then world no. 16-ranked player, Joe Perry,^[9] before narrowly losing 6–5 in the second round to experienced top player Stephen Lee after holding a 2–5 lead over him.^[10] 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. A staggering 110 million people watched the final against Hendry on China's national sports channel CCTV5 – by far the biggest TV audience ever recorded for a snooker match.^[11]

Medal record
Competitor for China
Men's Snooker
World Games
Silver	2005 Duisburg	Individual

In December 2005, he beat another crop of 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, 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.

2006–2008

In the 2006 China Open he gave his home crowd a good run for their money, but lost 6–2 to eventual winner Mark 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,^[12] becoming only the third person ever to do so before his twentieth birthday,^[12] after O'Sullivan and John Higgins.^[12] This win pushed his provisional world ranking position up to fifth.

Medal record
Competitor for China
Men's Snooker
Asian Games
Gold	2006 Doha	Individual
Gold	2006 Doha	Doubles
Gold	2006 Doha	Team

In December 2006, he won three gold medals at the Asian Games, winning the Single, Double and Team Snooker competitions. The following week, he reached, as the defending champion, the quarterfinal stage of the 2006 UK Snooker Championship,^[13] and subsequently lost to his practice partner and eventual winner, Peter Ebdon, by 9 frames to 5.^[13]

On 1 January 2007, he narrowly defeated Cao Xinlong 5–4 to reach the final of the Chinese National Snooker Championship in East China's Yixing, Jiangsu province, his home town. The following day, he beat Xiao Guodong in the final by 6 frames to 2, in doing so becoming the national champion once again.^[14]

On 14 January 2007, Ding made a 147 break in the opening match of the Saga Insurance Masters against Anthony Hamilton.^[15] It was the first maximum in the competition since that of Kirk Stevens in 1984, which was also the only one up to then.^[15] Additionally, Ding is the youngest player to make a 147 during a televised session (a record previously held by Ronnie O'Sullivan),^[15] and became the first Chinese snooker player in the history of BBC's coverage to make a televised maximum. He went on to make the final of the tournament,^[16] 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 had 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".^[17]

He was next bumped out of two tournaments in a row in the first rounds, losing 5–2 to Stephen Maguire in the Malta Cup^[18] and 5–1 to Jamie Cope in the Welsh Open.^[19] 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.^[20] 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.

The following season was consistent, reaching the last 16 of all but one ranking event, but he failed to reach a single semi-final, causing him to slip down two places, to number 11 in the world rankings. At the Crucible he managed to reach the second round for the first time, beating Marco Fu 10–9 in a high quality match, but he was unable to progress further, going down 13–7 to Stephen Hendry.

However, he started the next season on a high by winning the Jiangsu Classic, beating Mark Selby 6–5 in the final.

On the 16th of December in his Second Round match against John Higgins at the UK Championship, Ding scored a maximum 147 break in the third frame of the match.^[21]

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.^[22]

2009/2010

Ding started the 2009/10 season well. He reached the quarter-finals of the Shanghai Masters, and the final of the Grand Prix at Kelvin Hall, Glasgow, where he defeated Matthew Stevens 5–4 in the first round, Stephen Maguire 5–1 in the second round, Peter Ebdon 5–2 in the quarter-finals and Mark Williams 6–1 in the semi-finals. He lost to Neil Robertson 9–4 in the final.^[23]

Ding reached the final of the 2009 UK Championship after defeating Mike Dunn (9–5), Shaun Murphy (9–3), Ali Carter (9–8), and Stephen Maguire (9–5).^[24] He went on to defeat John Higgins in the final (10–8) to claim his second UK crown.^[25]

After losing his next two matches against Mark Selby (1–6) at the Masters and Jamie Cope (3–5) at the Welsh Open, Ding found his form, scoring nine centuries on his way to the China Open final, where he lost against Mark Williams (6–10), despite leading 5–4 at the end of first session.^[26]

At the World Championship he defeated Stuart Pettman 10–1, but lost 10–13 against Shaun Murphy in the second round.

Achievements

Ding Junhui has compiled 172 competitive century breaks, as of 27 April 2010.^[3] He has made two 147 maximum breaks in professional competition. The first at the 2007 SAGA Insurance Masters, which made him the youngest player to have made a televised 147 at the age of 19 years and 7 months. The second came at the 2008 UK Championship.

Performance timeline

Tournaments	2003/ 04	2004/ 05	2005/ 06	2006/ 07	2007/ 08	2008/ 09	2009/ 10
Ranking tournaments
Shanghai Masters	Not Held				2R	1R	QF
Grand Prix^{[nb 1]}	LQ	LQ	LQ	RR	RR	QF	F
UK Championship	LQ	1R	W	QF	QF	2R	W
Welsh Open	LQ	1R	LQ	1R	3R	2R	1R
China Open	NH	W	SF	1R	2R	1R	F
World Championship	LQ	LQ	LQ	1R	2R	2R	2R
Non-Ranking Tournaments
The Masters	1R	QF	A	F	QF	QF	1R
Premier League Snooker	A	A	SF	RR	SF	RR	A
Former Ranking Tournaments
Players Championship	2R	Not Held
British Open	LQ	3R	Not Held
Irish Masters	LQ	LQ	NH	NR	Not Held
Malta Cup^{[nb 2]}	LQ	LQ	LQ	1R	NR	Not Held
Northern Ireland Trophy	Not Held		NR	W	3R	2R	NH

Performance Table Legend
LQ	lost in qualifying draw	#R	lost in the early rounds of the tournament (WR = Wildcard round, RR = Round robin)
QF	advanced to but not past the quarterfinals	SF	advanced to but not past the semifinals
F	advanced to the final, tournament runner-up	W	won the tournament
DQ	disqualified from the tournament	A	did not participate in the tournament

NH / Not Held				means an event was not held.
NR / Non-Ranking Event				means an event is/was no longer a ranking event.

↑ The event run under different name as LG Cup (2001/2002-2003/2004)
↑ The event run under different name as European Open (2001/2002-2003/2004)

Tournament wins and career rankings

Season	Ranking
2004/05	76
2005/06	62
2006/07	27
2007/08	9
2008/09	11
2009/10	13

Ranking event wins

China Open – 2005
UK Championship – 2005, 2009
Northern Ireland Trophy – 2006

Non-ranking

Jiangsu Classic – 2008
World Series of Snooker – Tournament in Warsaw – 2008

Amateur

ACBS Asian Under-21 Championship – 2002
IBSF World Under-21 Championship – 2002
ACBS Asian Championship – 2002

In popular culture

A 26-episode cartoon series Dragon Ball No.1 by Beijing-based D5 Studio, based on Ding's growth from a shy boy to a snooker star, is expected to be broadcast on TV in 2010.^[27]