Snooker's biggest break - The moment Ding Junhui changed the sport forever

The match was broadcast to 110 million viewers in China, thought to be the most-watched match in snooker history. What followed was a boom in cue sports academies across China, causing an influx of young Chinese players which would shape the professional game over the next decade.

Almost twenty years on, this piece reflects on the impact of one of the most significant results in the game’s history.

2005 China Open: Ding’s unorthodox path to glory

By 2005, a young Ding Junhui had already made waves in the snooker world, winning a plethora of major international amateur titles including the World Under-21 Championship in 2002 aged just 15 - the youngest-ever champion.

He turned professional the following year and was selected as a wildcard for the Masters in 2004 and 2005 at the Wembley Conference Centre where he won multiple matches against the sport’s elite.

Building up to the 2005 China Open, hype around the young player was growing rapidly. Ding gave up his normal entry position in the tournament to participate in the wildcard round in Beijing, meaning he would not have to play through several rounds of qualification at Pontin’s Prestatyn in Wales several weeks earlier and risk him not being at the main venue.

However, the decision meant that Ding would not receive any prize money or ranking points as he started later in the tournament than his current world ranking determined.

Ding defeated Mark Davis 5-2 in the wildcard round on home soil to reach the main draw. The youngster then dispatched 2002 World Champion Peter Ebdon 5-0 in the first round - a standout result - before progressing past Stuart Bingham in the last 16, and then Marco Fu in the quarter-finals on his 18th birthday.

Another outstanding performance was produced in the semi-finals where Ding breezed past 1997 World Champion Ken Doherty, 6-0.

Awaiting the teenager in the final would be seven-time world champion Stephen Hendry, who was firm favourite for the title. Ding played beyond his years, winning 9-5 with a commanding performance to claim his maiden ranking event title that left Hendry and the rest of the snooker world astounded. China had found its new sporting hero.

A New Frontier: Ding puts China on the snooker map

After such a momentous event for snooker in China, investment increased from sponsors and broadcasters around the nation. The China Open - which was previously in danger of disappearing due to a waning lack of interest - all of a sudden found a new spark of life.

Ding’s success at the 2005 edition was a catalyst for its reestablishment as a key event on the professional calendar, and soon enough, more and more ranking events were introduced in the country. Among the most notable - the Shanghai Masters in 2007, and then the International Championship in 2012 - two events that have remained on the World Snooker Tour ever since.

Due to this exposure, major brands began to see snooker as a viable investment opportunity, with China itself seeing the sport as an opportunity to bring home silverware and boost national sporting pride. Commercial backing helped fund new training facilities, and state-of-the-art venues began popping up in major cities.

China gains traction in pursuit of snooker hegemony

With more events and prize money - which benefitted the professional scene as a whole and all its players - a new wave of Chinese players emerged.

The Chinese Snooker Academy, founded in Beijing, had become a breeding ground for talent, with world-class facilities and access to high-level coaching, where local players were given the resources to progress to the highest level. In the decade following Ding’s landmark moment at the 2005 China Open, many Chinese professionals followed his path to qualify for and join the professional circuit.

From out of nowhere, China was beginning to look like a formidable force in snooker, with a plethora of its players making their way onto the top tier, and several going deep at ranking tournaments.

Meanwhile, Ding Junhui himself had been busy writing his own legacy - winning three Triple Crown events before turning 25, as well as a run to the Crucible final in 2016.

Ding became the first Asian player to achieve number one in the world rankings in December 2014, picking up multiple ranking title successes along the way.

COVID-19 impedes Chinese investment

Within 15 years of Ding’s success, China had become one of snooker’s powerhouse nations. However, the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 wiped the snooker calendar of Chinese events, curtailing their ability to host tournaments for the next three seasons - making a return in the 2023/24 season.

During this gap, Yan Bingtao won the Masters in 2021, and Zhao Xintong won the UK Championship the following year, becoming the second and third Asian players to win a Triple Crown event.

The following year was arguably more damaging for Chinese snooker than the pandemic - with ten Chinese players banned for involvement in a match-fixing ring with punishments of varying severity. Among these were recent major winners Yan and Zhao, given bans of five years and 20 months respectively.

Ringleaders Liang Wenbo and Li Hang were handed lifetime bans - the first in the sport’s history.

Despite this blemish on their snooker involvement, the nation remains at the forefront of the sport - with Asia taking centre stage in the next few weeks with the oncoming World Open and World Grand Prix.

Ding’s 2005 China Open win was more than just a single tournament, it stamped the beginning of China’s obsession with the sport, inspiring a wave of new players, and incurring a transformation of the sport’s global appeal.

The country maintains an integral role in the professional game, hosting several key events each season across a variety of venues and cities, and shows no sign of stopping its conveyor belt of talent any time soon.