Ding Junhui (also known as Enter The Dragon) is one of the most accomplished snooker players around. He has won 14 major tournaments during his career, and has reached the final of two World Championships. He is considered to be one of the most successful Asian players in history.
The Chinese pro snooker player was introduced to the game at the age of eight by his father who was a snooker enthusiast. As a child, he was a member of the Shanghai national team in snooker and has been a great success back home.
Ding was the youngest player to achieve a televised break of 147 in history in 2007. Ding won the IBSF World Under-21 Championship the following year. He won his first professional title, and was ranked at the top of the world at number nine by the end 2006-07 season.
Ding has won fourteen major ranking titles during his career. Ding is also a former three-time UK Champion. Ding, who began his professional career as a player at the tender age of 16, has collected more than 500 century wins throughout his career. However, his absences in recent years have had a negative impact on his match sharpness. Ding is a popular Chinese social media user.
Ding reached the final of China Open at 18 years old and was then the first player from Ireland and Great Britain to win a ranking trophy. He also won his first all-Asian final against Marco Fu.
Despite the success of his home country, Ding has not been able to maintain his status as the number one snooker player in the world. His career has taken a downward turn in the past six years. He currently ranks 9th in the world. He has not participated in any major ranking events since 2017.
The 34-year old has a solid resume. In total, he has won almost $5 million in major tournaments. During the 2013-14 season, he won five ranking event tournaments and made it to the semifinals of the Ladbrokes World Grand Prix. He was defeated in the quarter finals by Shaun Murphy, Barry Hawkins, and Shaun Murphy.
He has won ten matches this season and had ten century records. Ding has also reached semifinals of Ladbrokes Players Tour Championship. He is expected to return to the World Championship in January.
In addition, he has managed to beat the world top 16 players. He beat Joe Perry, Mark Williams and James Cahill. He also made seven centuries in semi-finals at the Shangai Masters.
At 18 years of age, he won China's National Championship. He became the youngest player to record six maximum breaks. His ranking rose by seven spots, and he became the ninth-best player in snooker.
Ding remained at the top 16 in the rankings prior to that. However, Ding was eventually dropped from the top 16. Throughout his career, Ding has been a fixture in the Asian snooker scene.