Ding Junhui won the UK Championship for the third time in his career last night. He beat Stephen Maguire 10-6 after dominating throughout most of the game. Ding won the title back in 2005 and 2009 before adding his third in 2019.
Ding Junhui on fire
The 32-year old Chinese player displayed magnificent form en route to his UK Championship triumph. He defeated Ronnie O’Sullivan 6-4 in the last 16, won against Liang Wenbo in the quarter-finals 6-2, and celebrated over Yan Bingtao in the semi-finals 6-2.
Ding compiled ten century breaks during the UK Championship, including four in the final. He entered the competition as number 16 in the world ranking but has increased seven spots to number 9 after his victory.
Ding Junhui won his first ranking tournament in years, after winning the 2017 Snooker World Open. And he became the fifth player to win the UK title three or more times.
Ronnie O’Sullivan, who lost to Ding, praised the Chinese’s performance, even saying that Ding “could be a mafia godfather” after UK Championship win.
“He’s pure class, even in his speech, he’s a class act, unbelievable. Very rarely do you get people like that,” said The Rocket.
“He could be like the godfather of the mafia, like Al Pacino, he carries himself so well. For snooker in China, it’s the best thing to see him playing well, it would be nice to see him sustain it for eight or 10 years.”
“Fantastic, it’s like computer snooker, everything in the middle of the hole. He doesn’t move on the shot, mechanically very good.”
“He’s not got the cue power of a Judd Trump or Neil Robertson but he doesn’t really need it because he’s got the ring-craft. He’s capable of doing it consistently, he’s got that type of game, it’s very efficient, very economical he’s got the bottle.”
