He’s a Liverpool supporter, likes Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee and can make 100m viewers watch snooker . . . no wonder Steve Davis is interested in Ding Junhui
STEVE DAVIS has seen the future of snooker, and the sixtimes world champion is convinced that Ding Junhui will emulate him by holding aloft the game’s most glittering prize on the Crucible Theatre stage.
Sooner rather than later, believes Davis, after his dream of winning the UK Championship at the grand age of 48 fell at the last hurdle in York to the remarkably composed 18-year- old Chinese wonder.
Ding, who moved up 31 places to be provisionally ranked as world No 31 following his 10-6 victory, has a reputation for cat-napping which matches former cricketer Phil Tufnell’s, but his arrival is a rude awakening for established rivals.
Davis, who dominated the Eighties to a frightening degree, said: ‘ It’s so hard to dominate now but he’s on course to win the World Championship at a younger age than anybody before him.’ The target in his sights is Stephen Hendry, who won at the Crucible in 1990, aged 21.
‘ When somebody with talent matures as early as that, they are a phenomenon,’ added Davis. ‘ A player normally irons out any weaknesses by the time he’s 23, but if he hasn’t got any he’s a Crucible contender early on.
‘There are no aspects of his game he needs to brush up on — if he can give me a few lessons that would be very nice. Ding has a great cue action and hits the ball beautifully.
‘He’s very attacking but it’s considered, not reckless. He’s aggressive but he uses his brain. He doesn’t pot them off the lampshades, as they say, although he does go for a few in the course of a match.’
Having started to play aged 11, Ding, from Guangzhou near Shanghai, is in his third professional season after training at the snooker academy in Wellingborough where he would often practise with Peter Ebdon.
His parents were so keen to encourage him that his father took extra jobs and t h e f a m i l y m o v e d t o a smaller home to fund Ding’s ambition to break through, just as another exceptional Asian player, James Wattana, did a generation earlier. When he won the World Under 21 Amateur title at the age of 15 — the same year, 2002, as he won the Asian Under 21 and senior titles — it was clear to informed observers that Ding was a real talent.
Ebdon quickly tipped the youngster as a future world title contender, and rank outsider Shaun Murphy’s triumph last May against the odds has shown what belief and determination allied to skill can achieve.
Ding, the first player from outside the British Isles to lift snooker’s second most prestigious title, is only the second youngest UK champion after Ronnie O’Sullivan, who was 17 when he won at Preston.
But the Chinese player already has one ranking trophy to his name after entering the China Open in April as a wild card — thus forfeiting his claim to prizemoney — where he took Hendry apart in the final.
Around 100million Chinese TV viewers enjoyed that 9-5 victory, which came two days after his 18th birthday.
Davis said: ‘ I don’t think Ding would suffer Crucible nerves, because I don’t think he’s the type of person who would get too worried about things. He’s very singleminded at the moment.
‘ I get the feeling Sheffield won’t faze him too much. Of course, he has to play three qualifying rounds, and the ridiculous thing is that he might not go through.
‘The qualifiers are a graveyard for good players, and like everybody else, he will have to pay his dues. But if he is there in April, he will scare the other players.’
Ding is not one for small talk or good-natured banter with his peers. His English is rudimentary, and an interpreter was on hand at York to help offer thanks to the fans and the tournament sponsors Travis Perkins.
Their £ 70,000 winner’s cheque looks like the first of many big money paydays for Ding, while his ability promises to make him the celebrity back home that snooker chiefs pray for.
When he is not napping — he even looked in danger of d r o p p i n g o f f i n o n e o f Sunday’s slower frames — Liverpool fan Ding enjoys his collection of Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee films on DVD.
Might 2006 be the Year of the Chinese Dragon? Ding’s poker face gives nothing away but Davis, who has become expert at the online version of the game, would probably risk an educated bet.
p.ferguson@dailymail.co.uk