YORK, England, 20 December 2005 — Chinese teenager Ding Junhui confirmed his status as a superstar in the making when he beat six-time world champion Steve Davis 10-6 to win the UK Championship here on Sunday.
Ding, just 18, and 30 years Davis’ junior, held his nerve in a marathon 16th frame of their scheduled 19-frame encounter to become the second youngest winner of the tournament.
The China Open champion also became the first player from outside the British Isles to win the event in its 28-year history.
“This is the second most important tournament in the world and it gives me great joy to win here,” said Ding.
Ding missed two pinks that would have secured the title in the 16th frame but Davis, who needed a snooker to keep the contest alive, inadvertently potted it for him to hand the Chinese player the title.
Ding, who had to qualify for the final stages, lost the opening frame of the final but then went into a 2-1 lead thanks to a 111 break in the third frame.
Davis then leveled at 2-2 which soon became 3-3 when the Englishman hit a break of 81 in the sixth frame.
But ice-cool Ding snatched the last two frames of the session 81-0 and 80-44 to go into the evening firmly in command in his first appearance in a ranking final in Britain.
Ding took the next frame to go to 6-3 but allowed Davis back in the 10th when he missed a simple black and the 48-year-old Englishman seized his chance to make the score 6-4.
But Ding was then unstoppable, hitting a break of 77 to win the 11th frame and enjoying a 137-0 whitewash in the 12th to take a 8-4 lead into the evening mid-session break.
They shared the next two frames before Ding celebrated victory in a tense 16th frame.
