Ding Junhui wins third UK Championship
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Ding Junhui wins third UK Championship
China's top snooker player Ding Junhui clinches his third UK Championship title, defeating Stephen Maguire 10-6 in York on Sunday. [Photo/Xinhua]
LONDON -- China's top snooker player Ding Junhui clinched his third UK Championship title, defeating Stephen Maguire 10-6 in York on Sunday.
The win represents Ding's first ranking event title for more than two years and secures his place in the Masters in January.
Ding Junhui reacts in the final match. [Photo/Xinhua]
"I have had to wait a long time to lift a trophy again, and this is a big one," said Ding, who has shown a recovery of form in York where he ousted defending champion Ronnie O'Sullivan 6-4 to grab a quarterfinal berth.
The 32-year-old started the final in style, taking a 4-0 lead before Maguire pulled three frames back. The Chinese player grabbed the eighth frame to lead 5-3 after the first session, and then extended his lead to 7-3 by winning the opening two frames of the second session.
The win represents Ding's first ranking event title for more than two years and secures his place in the Masters in January. [Photo/Xinhua]
Ding Junhui reacts in the final match. [Photo/Xinhua]
Maguire fought back to reduce Ding's advantage by winning three frames with three breaks above 100, but Ding was calm enough to see out the match, notably producing a break of 131 in the 15th frame.
Stephen Maguire reacts in the final match. [Photo/Xinhua]
Having becoming a father last year, Ding said "It's a new world, a new life" to be with his daughter. Although he is training as hard as ever, these days he is more eager to return home after practise.
"My daughter makes me so happy that I don't feel too bad even without winning any titles for over two years," said Ding.
Stephen Maguire reacts in the final match. [Photo/Xinhua]
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I had a large size snooker table in the basement recreation room of the homes I owned in Toronto. Although I never became much of a shark, my son, who grew up with it, could have become a hustler.
However, I enjoy watching snooker being played by experts and there is a cable TV channel here that shows championship contests of snooker and billiards 24/7 that I watch a bit of almost every day. The meaning of the verb "snooker" is to make your shot in a way that ends up making it very difficult for your opponent to make the following shot, which I consider the most interesting part of the sport to watch. A good player can "snooker" his opponent. I'm not enamoured with billiards which is the form of the sport that uses the numbered balls on a smaller table. Snooker uses the balls shown in the picture at the top of this page.
Snooker is quite popular in China. The restaurant my wife's family and I went to last week for my mother-in-law's birthday had two snooker tables, and my wife's nephew and I played a bit, but since I had not played for years, and he wasn't too good at it either, it wasn't exactly a championship game.
Ding, the champion shown in this article, along with Ronnie O'Donnell who is mentioned in it, are often players in the TV shows I watch of the China Open and the Welsh Open and other contests. This was the first time I've seen Ding smile - he usually has a poker face, and in fact most players of those Masters and Championship contests hardly ever show any emotion.
I guess Old Hermit and I are the only people on NT who have any interest in this sport. Maybe most are only interested in sports where the players despise their national anthem.