How China's snooker revolution was sparked by Ding Junhui's first UK Championship title after teenager toppled Judd Trump, Jimmy White and Steve Davis

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Ding Junhui remains the second-youngest winner of the UK Championship behind Ronnie O'Sullivan with his first title at snooker's second-biggest ranking event, achieved at the age of 18 in 2005. Ding has claimed the trophy on two further occasions while twice finishing runner-up, but the story of his maiden triumph in York 20 years ago proved to be a historic staging post in the sport's growth.

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When Ding Junhui defeated Steve Davis to become the first overseas player to lift the UK Championship two decades ago, he probably did not realise the effect he was having on the sport in China.

Having sunk the seven-time world champion Stephen Hendry 9-5 to claim his maiden ranking event at the China Open in Beijing in April 2005, watched by an estimated television audience of 110 million viewers, the prodigious 18-year-old from Wuxi transported his formidable break-building skills to York in the following December.

Davis, a six-time UK winner rediscovering some prime form beyond his 1980s vintage, would finish four frames adrift of Ding in a 10-6 defeat, but that was the closest any opponent got to the young champion over a memorable week at the York Barbican.

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Perched at 60th in the world rankings, he won three qualifiers, including a 9-2 dismissal of a 16-year-old rookie Judd Trump - the now world No. 1 then exploring his first year on tour - in his opener in the Welsh outpost of Prestatyn.

There was also a 9-3 victory over Jimmy 'Whirlwind' White, the 1992 UK champion in the last 32, as Ding's rise to prominence suddenly encompassed 45 years of a snooker "Who's Who" at a tournament first won by Irishman Patsy Fagan in Blackpool in 1977.

Davis himself had first competed at the UK Championship in 1979 in Preston, carried off by the evergreen pundit John Virgo, when it was a non-ranking event before triumphing six times in 1980, 1981, 1984, 1985, 1986 and 1987, the last four victories in successive years heralding the switch to ranking event status.

It was only the rapidly maturing efforts of Ding in the final that denied him a seventh victory at the age of 48, but the six-time Crucible winner was in the best of company as his 100th major final appearance ended in dejection.

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"He's got a great cue action, a great all-round game," said Davis about Ding's display. "He's aggressive, but it's considered aggression."

It should be considered remarkable to think that Ding came across the defending UK champion Trump, who he defeated 6-4 in the last four two years ago, for the first time in November 2005, a teenage battle between two generational greats who would progress to claim five UK titles (and counting) between them.

The late, great three-time Masters champion Paul Hunter was brushed off 9-2 by Ding in the last 16 before Neil Robertson, UK champion in 2013, 2015 and 2020, was usurped 9-5 in the quarter-finals with 'The Gentleman' Joe Perry making way (9-4) in the semi-finals.

Ding produced nine centuries on his way to the crown, but quite incredibly, was the only player from China to reach the last 32 at the 2005 tournament, a time when the Triple Crown or the concept of snooker 'majors' had not been invented.

The professional circuit has a much different feel to it two decades on, but the magnitude of the moment persists.

Much of snooker's ongoing growth, development and interest is down to Ding's success story as a potting pioneer.

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The Ding legacy in snooker is only too obvious with a record 10 players from China qualifying for the World Championship at the Crucible in April, a platform that provided the country's first world champion in Zhao Xintong.

Of course, Zhao had already followed Ding's lead by lifting the UK Championship in 2021 with a 10-5 win over Luca Brecel, after his compatriot had delivered two more UK titles in 2009 and 2019, five years after he became Asia's first world No. 1.

Many commentators had expected Ding to deliver his country a world title before Zhao beat him to it, but perhaps his gift is a greater monument to the game than the £5.4m prize money he has picked up on the table.

His contribution to widespread interest in snooker in China will be seen best at this year's event on England's green and pleasant baize.

A record 12 players from China, a country with a population of 1.46 billion, will compete in the final 32 at the Barbican in York, matching the number of players from England at the sport's second-biggest ranking event.

There are three all-Chinese matches in the first round, with world No. 8 Ding involved in one of them against Xu Si on Monday.

Like the long and winding road to Ding's victory in York, the second-youngest winner of the event after eight-time champion Ronnie O'Sullivan, snooker has travelled well beyond the idea that the Chinese are coming.

They are already here with the numbers committed to the sport in the country apparently making 1980s TV audiences in the UK, the sport's boom period in these parts, feel more like a comparison between here and Greenland.

An estimated audience of 180m watched Zhao triumph at the World Championship, with 50m playing the sport and 300,000 snooker halls to keep them occupied.

On such a sample size, the direction of travel is obvious with China and Hong Kong hosting six major tournaments on the World Snooker Tour this season.

If snooker halls are viewed as part of a sunset industry in the UK, in China they are only getting started with a youthful interest in the sport only buttressed by 28-year-old Zhao's 18-12 world final victory over Mark Williams.

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Back in 1997, a doctor from Beijing apparently struck £20 at 500-1 that there would be a Chinese world champion by 2010.

The bet never quite paid out on Ding, but such odds are a relic of another age, back in the days when Manchester United were roundhousing the rest of English football.

The phrase 'Fergie time' emerged among certain journalists and fans, who felt that referees occasionally added stoppage time that seemed to benefit Sir Alex Ferguson’s United.

It was a comparison Shaun Murphy used to describe snooker in the UK as a poor relation to China after he scrambled past 17-year-old debutant Yan Bingtao, the 2021 Masters champion, 10-8 in the first round of the 2017 World Championship.

"We are well into borrowed time, we are well into Fergie time to borrow a football analogy," said Murphy.

"Whenever we do a tournament in China, we always do a cue zone out there.

"The local schools and local government invest in the sport out there. They love snooker, and can't get enough of it. When we are over there, we do coaching sessions. And now you start to see it come through."

Snooker's revolution beyond the white ball started with Ding becoming the first winner of the UK title from outside the UK and Ireland.

It continues its evolution at the impending 49th UK Championship in York and a starting grid inspired by Ding's win for the ages against Davis all those years ago.

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The 49th UK Championship takes place at the Barbican from November 29 to December 7, live on TNT Sports and discovery+.

Ding's epic road to 2005 UK Championship title

Round 1: Judd Trump (Eng) 9-2
Round 2: Robin Hull (Fin) 9-6
Round 3: Fergal O'Brien (Ire) 9-4
Round 4: Anthony Hamillton (Eng) 9-3
Last 32: Jimmy White (Eng) 9-3
Last 16: Paul Hunter (Eng) 9-2
Quarter-finals: Neil Robertson (Aus) 9-5
Semi-finals: Joe Perry (Eng) 9-4
Final: Steve Davis (Eng) 10-6

UK Championship first round draw

Judd Trump Eng (1) v Stephen Maguire Sco
Si Jiahui Chn (16) v Ryan Day Wal
Ding Junhui Chn (9) v Xu Si Chn
Mark Allen NI (8) v Scott Donaldson Sco
Mark Williams Wa (5) v David Gilbert Eng
Xiao Guodong Chn (12) v Pang Junxu Chn
Wu Yize Chn (13) v Michael Holt Eng
Neil Robertson Aus (4) v Julien Leclercq Bel

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Kyren Wilson Eng (3) v Elliot Slessor Eng
Barry Hawkins Eng (14) v David Lilley Eng
Mark Selby Eng (11) v Lei Peifan Chn
Ronnie O'Sullivan Eng (6) v Zhou Yuelong Chn
John Higgins Sco (7) v Ben Woollaston Eng
Shaun Murphy Eng (10) v Lyu Haotian Chn
Gary Wilson Eng (15) v Zhang Anda Chn
Zhao Xintong Eng (2) v Long Zehuang Chn

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Watch and stream the 2025/26 snooker season, including the UK Championship, live on TNT Sports and discovery+

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