Audacious Chinese teenager Ding Junhui has his sights set on becoming the world's No. 1 snooker player.

Achieving that would bring him superstar status alongside the likes of Yao Ming.

Companies are already falling over themselves in the scramble to sign up the 18-year-old as an ambassador for their products, conscious that his star is only going to get brighter.

There is growing belief that Ding can make his dream come true after beating six-time world champion Steve Davis to win the UK championship last month, moving him up to 31 in the world rankings.

Just 18, he showed a steely nerve to take a title that is considered second only to the world championships, which is now in his sights.

"This is the second most important tournament in the world and it gives me great joy to win here," Ding said after his win over Davis.

"It will give me a lot of confidence to go to the world championships in Sheffield next year. This is a big step."

Ding, who hails from eastern Jiangsu Province, has been credited with professionalizing snooker's image in China, where it is often played on sidewalks in cities, especially on hot summer days.

His victory over Davis is expected to fuel even more interest in a sport that is played by an estimated 50 million people in China.

And it has the potential to turn Ding into a one of China's few true sporting superstars, alongside the likes of NBA star Yao Ming and 2004 Olympic 110m hurdles champion Liu Xiang.

When he won his home tournament last season, he was watched by a staggering 100 million TV viewers across China. Wily companies want to build on his success and are queuing up to use his name and image.

"We've been contacted by over 20 companies, Chinese and foreign, from cars to sports clothes," Wu Shaoqing, a manager from Ding's agent, Beijing Zhonghui International Sports Management Company, told AFP.

"They all want Ding Junhui, and we are still thinking and making our choices."

He refused to say how much money was involved but the Oriental Morning Post said seven-figure sums were being bandied around, which is close to what sponsors pay Liu.

Hailing from Yixing city in China's Jiangsu Province, Ding has always been focused on what he wants to achieve in life, his father said.

"He's got very high goals for his life. He always wants to do his best," Ding Wenjun said.

His success is even more impressive given that he left home when he was eight for southern Guangdong Province to pursue his dream.

He now lives in Northamptonshire in Britain during the European season and has had to battle home-sickness while struggling to grasp the English language.

Ding senior used to be a self-employed businessman but sacrificed all this in 1996 to take his son on a tour of the country to better his snooker training and to take part in professional matches.

The father said that after all the years of hard work he feels Ding is closing in on his goal, and that pushing him so hard was the right decision.

"I've got the kind of feeling that we've achieved something, and it is not easy for us, to achieve something in a sport where there is obviously a vacuum in China," he said, referring to the lack of government support for the sport.

Davis, who has also won the UK title six times, believes Ding has what it takes to be up there with the best, but also offered words of caution against hailing him as the sport's saviour.

"He's certainly on course to become a world champion and he's got a realistic chance of being the youngest ever," Davis told the BBC.

"I think he's the first young player since Ronnie O'Sullivan to really look like he could take the game by storm."

Stephen Hendry was 21 when he won his first world title.

Ding created his own history in 2002 with an unprecedented hat-trick of titles. Aged 15, he won both the Asian under-21 and senior titles, as well as the world under-21 championships.

But Davis warned against Ding being thrust forward as the answer to reviving a sport which has been hit by the banning of tobacco sponsorship.

"We've been trying for ages to expand the sport and while it may be popular in China, there's still no real money being thrown at the game there from a sponsorship point of view," said the 48-year-old.

"I'm sure you'll get a slow trickle of great players from China who will come over to play in the UK.

"But I don't think we should be jumping up and down and saying the game is going to explode in the Far East because I don't think it will. If they ever put some money into it then perhaps we can say it's been a success story."

(China Daily January 5, 2006)