Ding roars back to conquer his demons
Ding Junhui surged to a third uK Championship title last night — 10 years after his last success. The 32-year-old Chinese superstar beat Scotland’s Stephen Maguire 10-6 in the final at York’s Barbican Centre to pocket the £200,000 first prize. And it was a great night for a relieved Ding, who emerged from a prolonged slump in form, results and confidence. This was a 14th ranking event win for the former no 1 but a first victory in one of the three majors for nearly nine years, and his first of any sort for two and a half years. There have been questions about Ding’s motivation, given he earns huge sums off the table from sponsorship back home. But against Maguire it was proof that while form is temporary, class is permanent. Maguire, 38, was always playing catch-up but despite making three century breaks, the world no 14 and 2004 uK winner could not repeat the fine form of his 6-0 semi-final win over Mark Allen. Ding said: ‘This win is very special. For two years i have done nothing but i played very well this week. it has just clicked. i was worrying about not doing well and asking myself if i would win again. The answer has been no, but this event i beat Ronnie O’Sullivan on the way and that gave me the belief that i could lift the trophy here. i have been watching videos of my daughter from back home to take the pressure off. ‘She is too young to understand this, but maybe one day she will think she has the best daddy!’ Maguire said: ‘Ding’s scoring power is the difference. it’s not darts — but every time he gets in, he makes 100s.’ in a match that meant a huge amount for both players, Ding surged into a 4-0 lead helped by breaks of 56, 105 and 128 before Maguire rallied to pull back to 4-3 adrift. But China’s no 1 took the last frame of the afternoon and extended that lead to 7-3 in the evening. A gutsy Maguire break of 103 was followed by a 67 by Ding to leave the lead at 8-4. Two Ding misses, one on the black and one on a red, saw Maguire knock in back-to-back centuries of 103 and 124 to cut the deficit to 8-6. But Ding’s 131 took him to the brink, and he wrapped up the win in the next with another century.