Ding Junhui was born on April 1 1987 in a town called Yixing in the province of Jiangsu, China.
Ding Junhui snooker professional career began at the young age of 16 in 2003 when he became one of the youngest ever professionals on the main tour. Ding had been one of the more promising young players to play professional snooker since the era of Steve Davis and Stephen Hendry in the 80’s and 90’s. Many commentators tipped Ding to win multiple world championships, although that has still not come to fruition as of yet.
One year after turning professional in 2003, Ding was awarded the wild card entry to the 2004 Masters in London where he lost in the first round to Stephen Lee.
His first breakthrough came the following year at the China open in Beijing where he won his first ranking title event.
Following on from this, Ding has won the UK championships, the Masters and a whole host of other ranking events. In 2016 Ding reached his first crucible World Final where he was narrowly defeated by Mark Selby.
As a prolific break builder, it is no surprise that Ding has one of the best century break records with more than 450 so far in his career. Along with this, Ding has one of the best 147 records.
In recent years, his form has fluctuated somewhat, and as a result he has dropped out of the top 16 in 2016 meaning he had to qualify for the World championships, where he reached the final. As a result of this result, Ding re-entered the top 16.
In September 2016 Ding Junhui snooker career excelled once more as he won the Shanghai Masters on his home soil, beating Mark Selby in the final. It was an emotional final and he could hardly speak while in floods of tears.
Ding lives a private quiet life outside of snooker with his wife and he is currently living in Sheffield, the home of snooker.
