A year after his stunning win in the China Open, China's Ding Junhui is now bearing even greater expectation from home fans ahead of the start of the tournament this week.
But the 19-year-old is staying cool, saying he has yet to even think about the defence of his title.
"I don't want to consider it right now," said Ding, who returned from the UK yesterday.
"Everybody is formidable here at the tournament. I haven't set any goal for myself, I just hope to play good snooker from the very beginning."
Ding, ranked 62 in the world, stunned the sport by claiming the trophy last year after beating Stephen Hendry in the final in Beijing, giving China its first Main Tour title in the country's history.
He wrapped up the season in dramatic fashion too, when he became the first player from outside Britain and Ireland to take the Travis Perkins UK Championship title.
In a poll conducted by China's most popular website, Sina.com, 53.97 per cent believed the biggest appeal of the tournament was whether Ding was able to defend the title.
The event attracts all top 16 snooker players in the world, including big guns Hendry, "The Rocket" Ronnie O'Sullivan, Jimmy White and John Higgins.
"I feel heavy pressure," said Ding, who comes into the China Open after a depressing loss at the last round of the World Championships qualifiers earlier this month. "I don't think the setback will influence me at home, but I hope I can ignore the home crowd and purely focus on the game."
Despite Ding's modest attitude, White gave high praise to the Chinese sensation.
"He has been improving all the time and I believe he will be world champion in maybe five or ten years," he said. "In addition, he promotes snooker in China and make millions of Chinese kids fans."
Ding enters as the top-seeded player as defending champion, a far cry from last year when he entered as a wild card. He will play against world No 13 Graeme Dott in his first game tomorrow, and face White or Paul Hunter if he gets through to the second round.
Because of the home advantage, the organizers gave all eight wildcards to Chinese players, who kicked off their first matches today.
Liang Wenbo, another Chinese competing on the Main Tour, was unable to join Ding in the draw as he failed in the event's qualifiers last year.
All matches up to quarter-finals will be best of 9 frames, semi-finals are best of 11 frames and the final is best of 17 frames.
The tournament, which is sponsored by the Star Group, begins today at the Beijing University Students Gymnasium, and the final will be staged on Sunday.
(China Daily 03/20/2006 page6)
