Teenage snooker sensation Ding Junhui's appearance in the final
of the British Masters looks set to catapult him to the level of
stardom enjoyed by NBA center Yao Ming and record-holding hurdler
Liu Xiang.
Still a couple of months shy of his 20th birthday, Ding
outclassed world No 1 Stephen Hendry en route to the final of the
Masters on Sunday, a week after he replaced opponent Ronnie
O'Sullivan as the youngest player to register a televised maximum
147 break.
Ding became the first Asian player to reach the final of the
Masters, the most prestigious event in the sport, and despite
losing 10-3 his exploits captivated his growing army of fans.
Public interest was so high that China Central Television (CCTV)
was forced to reschedule its programming at the last minute to
provide coverage of the final three rounds.
"Ding is already a superstar," said Zhang Xiaodong, snooker
director of the Multi-ball Administrative Centre, the governing
body of the sport in China. "He has the same reputation here as Yao
Ming and Liu Xiang because he has brought snooker to an
unprecedented height.
"In fact, his contribution is even greater as snooker used to be
a street sport a few years ago, but now many kids dream of a
professional career.
"Snooker is already one of the most popular sports in China,
alongside table tennis and basketball. We couldn't have dreamed of
this five year ago."
Hurlder Liu joined millions watching the live coverage of Ding's
clash with Ronnie "Rocket" O'Sullivan, even though it did not start
until midnight on Sunday.
"Liu is crazy about Ding," said Liu's coach Sun Haiping. "He
didn't sleep until four in the morning!"
Just hours after the match there were already over 24,000
comments about Ding on China's leading website Sina.com.
In a poll conducted by the website, 58 percent of fans believe
Ding will win more than two rankings tournaments, while 68 percent
of them think he will make the top eight by the end of the
season.
"He is one of the rarest talents that I have seen," said
O'Sullivan. "There is no doubt in my mind that he will become a
multiple World Champion."
"If he's going to keep playing like that, he'll be around the
top four players for the next 10 to 15 years," said Hendry after
his semifinal defeat.
It was at the China Open in 2005 that Ding announced his arrival
at snooker's top table by defeating Hendry to win his first ranking
tournament, in front of a television audience of 110 million.
More success was to come later that year when he won the UK
championship by beating another of the greats of the game, Steve
Davis.
The huge television ratings have not gone unnoticed by a sport
still struggling to break out of its British heartland: World
Snooker has its only staffed international office in Beijing.
Simon Leach, head of the Beijing Office, said the governing body
is likely to bring a second ranking tournament, in Shanghai, to
China this year, and the World Championships is also available for
China in the near future.
Tearful defeat
Despite the loss on Sunday, Ding could leave with his head held
high. He almost left too early, mistakenly offering his hand to
concede defeat ahead of time after getting his sums wrong.
Ding began brightly, snatching the first two frames at a packed
Wembley Arena in London, the second with a superb 109 break.
But for the next four frames it was all O'Sullivan, who went to
the mid-session break with a 5-3 lead.
Ding missed a long red and O'Sullivan coolly slotted home a
brilliant 96 break to increase his lead to three frames. And that
lead soon became four when Ding overcut a red to the top left
pocket. The 1995 and 2005 champion pounced eith a 66 break.
Ding began to look way off the pace, clearly troubled by the
noisy partisan crowd, and O'Sullivan was not going to miss out. He
quickly made it 8-3 with yet another superb break.
The onslaught continued in the next frame and, with a stunning
143 break - the second highest of the tournament after Ding's 147
maximum in the wildcard round - O'Sullivan took himself within two
frames of victory.
After Ding mistakenly attempted to concede the match before the
first interval of the session, O'Sullivan, a supremely talented
potter who holds the world record for fastest 147 but whose career
has been hindered by bouts of clinical depression, put a comforting
arm around his young opponent as they left the arena.
The players did return after a 20-minute break, but a World
Snooker spokesman confirmed that Ding had thought the match was the
best-of-17 frames instead of the scheduled 19.
It made little difference as O'Sullivan, with a break of 74, won
the first frame after the interval to secure this year's title as
Ding looked on in tears.
Ding said he was upset by some of the comments from the
crowd.
"It is very different to events like the China Open because the
fans go in groups and I felt very alone here," he explained.
"I was a bit annoyed with some of the comments because I
couldn't concentrate."
Agencies contributed to this report
(China Daily January 23, 2007)