Ding Junhui has seen a spectacular return to form carry him into Sunday’s UK Championship final in York as he chases a fourth success in the tournament.
The 35-year-old from China arrived for the first major of snooker’s season at the Barbican Centre with a world ranking of just 38 – a far cry from the world number one position he has previously occupied. And yesterday he started where he left off against seven-time UK winner and world No1 Ronnie O’Sullivan, having whitewashed the Rocket 6-0 in the quarter-finals.
Ding’s semi-final opponent Tom Ford fared better and missed the ninth red on a 147 attempt in frame nine looking to close to 5-4, but the Asian superstar swooped to complete a 6-3 victory.
At one stage it looked as if Leicester’s Ford, a 39-year-old yet to win a ranking title, might suffer the same fate as O’Sullivan as Ding extended his winning run of frames to 13 at 5-0 up.
But world No32 Ford, who rejoices in the downbeat tag of being snooker’s most miserable man, found his form to make it a lot closer.
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Ding, who left home as a 15-year-old and came over to the UK to try and fulfil his snooker dream, has not even been in a final since he last won this title three years ago, with widespread question marks and speculation over his desire. He has not yet won a world title despite long being tipped as the most likely Asian player to win it for a first time – though that could still happen.
But the respect he still enjoys from his fellow professionals is near total, both for his prodigious talent and also the way he deals with the intense spotlight and adulation in his home country.
Ding, whose first UK title came back in 2005 beating Steve Davis in the final, has won all three showpieces to date in which he has played. And if he wins a fourth UK title he will ease clear of John Higgins and Neil Robertson on three into fourth place on his own in the all-time list – behind only O’Sullivan, Steve Davis and Stephen Hendry.
He said: “I feel great to be back in the final. I haven’t done anything in the game for three seasons since I won this tournament, I haven’t been any good. But all week I have played very well and that confidence in to the final.
“I have chosen not to play some of the smaller tournaments in the past years but maybe I need to do them to stay sharp of the bigger ones and that might have been wrong. But I have been lucky at the UK and have often played well here at the Barbican.
“I am trying to get back into the top 16 where I have not been for some time, and I feel that the way some of the other and younger Chinese players have been playing has been pushing me to get some of the wins I am enjoying.
“And I am really looking forward to playing in the final again. The fans in China have the choice of watching me or the first game in the football World Cup – I think they will watch both.
“Tom is playing well at the moment and cueing good, he is pretty dangerous. He just lot concentration a couple of times and I was very happy to get the chance at the end.”
Ford said: “I just couldn’t get going at all at the start until it was too late. This week, the last match against Joe Perry and today, was the best I have felt for ages – but the worst I have played.
“I was just struggling so much and at 5-3 when I was on the maximum 147 and a chance to get back to 5-4, I just took my eye off the red. That’s me up to No21 in the world, thought it might have looked about 121 from that.
“But there are definitely positives to take from this week, if you had offered me getting to the semi-finals at the start of the tournament I would have bitten your hand off.
“I think anyone who knows me what I’ll be doing straight after these interviews, I won’t be heading straight home to Leicester.”
Ding will take on player of the season Mark Allen on Sunday – after the reigning Northern Ireland Open champion won a late-night thriller 6-5 on the final black.
World No12 Lisowski led 5-3 and was looking to finally win a ranking title after losing six previous finals.
But after the 36-year-old Allen forced a decider with gutsy breaks of 115 and 74 he somehow held his nerve in a crazy final frame to fall over the line.
Allen, who will play for the £250,000 first prize against Ding, said: “I have no idea where that comeback came from. That was awful at the start, though I played some good stuff from 5-3.
“But in the decider Jack had a number of chances to put me away there, and maybe it’s just what you get after winning a lot of matches as I have recently.”
*18+ | BeGambleAware | Odds Subject to Change
