Ding Junhui, also known as Enter the Dragon, is one of the most successful snooker players in the world. He has won 14 major tournaments during his career, and has reached the final of two World Championships. He is actually considered the greatest Asian player of all time.
Chinese pro-snooker player, Liu Zhiyuan, was introduced to the sport by his father, who was an avid snooker fan. As a kid, he went to Shanghai's national snooker team and has been a major success there.
Ding became the youngest person to record a televised 747 break. In the same year, he won the IBSF World Under-21 Championship. This was his first professional title and he was ranked as a world number nine at the end of the 2006-07 season.
Ding has won a total fourteen major ranking titles over the course of his career. Ding is also a three time UK Champion. Having started playing professionally at age sixteen, Ding has compiled more than 500 century breaks 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 defeated Marco Fu in his first all Asian final.
Ding, despite the success of his homeland, has not been in a position to keep his title as the top snooker player. In the last six years, his career has been in decline. Currently, he is ranked ninth in the world. And he has not played in a big money ranking event since 2017.
But the 34-yearold has a strong record. He has won nearly $5 million in major tournaments. He won five ranking tournament tournaments during the 2013-14 season and reached the semifinals at the Ladbrokes World Grand Prix. However, he lost to Barry Hawkins (and Shaun Murphy) in the quarter-finals.
In 2019, Ding won ten matches, and has compiled ten centuries breaks. Ding reached the semi-finals of the Ladbrokes Players Tour Championship. Therefore, it is probable that Ding will return to January's World Championship.
In addition, he beat 16 of the top world players. He defeated Joe Perry. James Cahill. Thepchaiya UN-Nooh. He also made seven centuries in semi-finals at the Shangai Masters.
At just 18 years old, he won a Chinese National Championship. In addition to becoming the youngest player to accumulate six maximum breaks, he also became the youngest ever to win the Chinese National Championship. After that, his ranking increased by seven spots to become the ninth-best snooker player in the world.
Before that, Ding remained in the top 16 of the rankings. Eventually, however, he fell out of the top 16. Ding has been a regular in the Asian Snooker scene all his life.