Hot Ding is on cue in Belfast
[SNOOKER] China's Ding Junhui captured his third world ranking event title when he defeated Ronnie O'Sullivan 9-6 in the final of the Northern Ireland Trophy at Belfast's Waterfront Hall on Sunday night.
Ding, the UK champion and also winner of the 2005 China Open, has not lost a ranking event final and only Scotland's John Higgins had previously won three as a teenager. But 19-year-old Ding was kicking himself for missing out on a possible maximum in frame two, breaking down on 80 when he ran out of position on the 11th red. He led O'Sullivan 5-3 at the halfway mark and while the "Rocket" drew level at 6-6 after compiling the highest break of the tournament, a 140 in frame 11, Ding dominated the exchanges afterwards. The Chinese, who now moves to fifth on the provisional world ranking list, with Thailand's James Wattana 18th, added breaks of 62, 36 and 86 to earlier runs of 103, 80, 71, 58 and 43 as he captured the first prize of £30,000. "Ronnie is a difficult player to beat, but maybe now I can go on and win the world championship at the end of the season," said Ding. O'sullivan remarked: "I made more unforced errors than Ding and that was the difference." John Dee The Nation Belfast
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