China

Ding can do ron wrong

(Sporting Life)
Updated: 2007-04-16 17:19

With around 100million people watching his every shot, it is a wonder Ding Junhui had not cracked up before this year's Masters meltdown.

But despite carrying the hopes of so many of his countrymen on such young shoulders, the Chinese sensation had become renowned for approaching his snooker with extraordinary detachment.

China's Ding Junhui reacts during the 2007 World Snooker China Open in the first round game against Barry Hawkins March 29 in Beijing. [Xinhua]

As with Steve Davis in his pomp, it took a master poker player to detect any flicker of emotion in the face of the then teenager.

However, the armour was well and truly pierced that January night against Ronnie O'Sullivan, when a dream Wembley final descended into a nightmare on and off the table.

After going 2-0 up Ding lost nine of the next 10 frames, visibly unhappy with the partisan support for the home favourite, who also happened to be at his imperious best.

Then, in one of the most bizarre scenes ever witnessed in a major final, a tearful Ding appeared to throw in the towel, offering O'Sullivan his hand even though his opponent still required one more frame for a 10-3 victory.

Ding's camp insist he genuinely thought the match was over and had no intention of quitting prematurely.

Whatever the truth, his behaviour demonstrated just how acutely he was rattled by the experience, one for which the expression 'culture shock' was surely coined.

"It is very different to events like the China Open because the fans go in groups and I felt very alone here," he said.

Less than three months later Ding will have the opportunity to avenge that defeat after finally ending his World Championship qualifying hoodoo.

At the fourth time of asking the 20-year-old survived this year's gruelling four-match programme to take his place among the elite at the Crucible Theatre.

Having worked for so long and hard to get there it is doubtful Ding will welcome his first-round meeting with O'Sullivan, arguably the only player on the planet more naturally gifted than himself.

After being for so long hailed as a future world champion, Ding may have to wait another 12 months at least to validate that prediction.

As he found out to his cost three months ago there is no greater challenge in the game than facing an in-form O'Sullivan.

Yet until the Masters, it looked as if there was no player better equipped to meet that challenge head on than Ding, who this season joined a select band to have won three ranking titles as teenagers.

His first success, in the 2005 China Open, was the most watched snooker match in history, while the latest, August's Northern Ireland Trophy, proved he was more than capable of getting the better of O'Sullivan.

But his chances of emulating that victory in Sheffield will largely depend on whether he can avoid a repeat of his Wembley wobble.

That cause will be helped immeasurably by facing possibly the most mentally fragile player ever to wield a cue.

For where emotional breakdowns are concerned Ding has nothing on his opponent, who famously forfeited December's Maplin UK Championship quarter-final against Stephen Hendry.

Ironically O'Sullivan was instrumental in calming down Ding before what was the final frame at Wembley and was later full of praise for his shellshocked opponent.

"Ding is one of the rarest talents I've seen," he said. "There's no doubt in my mind he will become a multiple world champion."

As the last teenager to be so often heralded as a Crucible winner-in-waiting, O'Sullivan has more idea than most of the pressure Ding is under.

It is telling that it took the 31-year-old nine attempts including his 1993 Sheffield debut to finally fulfil his destiny and Ding will certainly not want to wait as long to do the same.

But even if he beats O'Sullivan, a possible second-round meeting with this season's form player Neil Robertson and a quarter-final against John Higgins mean his path to the final is unlikely to get any easier.

Then again, with 100million willing you on, anything is possible.