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Ding shot to fame in 2002. At just fifteen years old he
first of all won the Asian Under 21 championship.
He followed that up with a resounding 8-1 win
over Singapore's Keith E Boon in the final of the Asian
Championship, and to prove that this was no fluke, in August
he travelled to Latvia and came home as the new IBSF World
under 21 champion.
He has since added the Snooker singles Gold
Medal in the Asian Games and finished as a semi finalist in
the 2002 IBSF World Championship.
In 2003 he was unable to progress much in Asian
snooker as both the Asian championship and the under 21 event
had to be cancelled due to the SARS virus crisis.
He defended his World Under 21 title, reaching
the semi finals, before losing out to Australian Main Tour
player Neil Robertson.
The WSA awarded Ding a Main Tour
concession in recognition of his outstanding 2002-3 results
and he'll started his professional career in
September 2003.
He turned more heads
in February 2004 when he made his debut in the
Masters at Wembley and knocked out Joe Perry and
narrowly failed to beat Stephen Lee.
Since then he's had
to get used to a new cue after baggage handlers
smashed it. In the 2004-5 season he beat both Tony
Drago and Jimmy White to reached the last 16 of the
British Open and he got through to the televised
stages of the 2005 Welsh Open losing to John Parrott. In January 2005 he
made his professional high break of 141 against Gary
Wilkinson, during the Irish Masters qualifiers and
he equalled that feat at the Wembley Masters.
Ding is based at the
Academy in Sheffield, when in the UK, and he's
a regular practice partner of Peter Ebdon, who
enthuses about his skills and potential.
Remember the name.
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