Ding crushes Hendry to reach final
(AFP)Updated: 2007-01-21 08:42
LONDON - Chinese teenager Ding Junhui continued his impressive run at the British Masters at Wembley when he crushed former world champion Stephen Hendry 6-2 in their semi-final.
 China's Ding Junhui prepares to hit his shot against former world champion Stephen Hendry in their semi-final at the British Masters at Wembley. [China Poto Press] |
Ding, who won a wildcard tie to qualify for the event and made a maximum 147 in the process, will now play Ronnie O'Sullivan who beat Stephen Maguire 6-4 in Sunday's final.
He will be trying to win his fourth career title, all before the age of 20.
"It's the first time I've beaten Stephen in the UK," said Ding, who got the better of Hendry 9-5 in the final to win the China Open in Beijing in 2005.
"He is a very difficult opponent and he's familiar with the conditions here so it's a good acheivement to beat him.
"But I still have room for improvement."
Hendry, who rates Ding as the best talent to emerge in the past decade, said: "I made three or four silly errors in different frames, but he played fantastically well from the sixth onwards.
"He seemed to go up a gear. The best compliment I can give him is that there are only two or three players in the world who, when youre sitting there, you consistently think youre not going to get back to the table, even with 15 reds on.
"If hes going to keep playing like that hell be around the top four players for the next 10 to 15 years."
Ding edged the first frame and took the second before Hendry got into the match by winning the third.
The Chinese star then took the next before Hendry fired in a break of 129. However, Ding reeled off the next three with a break of 128 in the seventh frame.
Impressively, Ding kept Hendry pointless in the last two frames of the tie.
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