The revenge of Ding Junhui? Bizarre pattern emerging on this season's World Snooker Tour

It has been a bit of a topsy-turvy 2024/25 season for Ding, although largely a successful one. The term began slowly for him after losing his opening match at his first three ranking event outings - defeat coming via a deciding frame each time - but he collected his first ranking points of the campaign with a last 16 run at the Wuhan Open.

Just a few weeks later, Ding ended a near five-year spell without a ranking event title victory when he defeated Chris Wakelin 10-7 in the final to win the 2025 International Championship on home soil. The £175,000 top prize he banked also helped alleviate any ranking position concerns he had for the time being.

Since that memorable triumph in Nanjing in November, Ding has won matches, but not really gone on another deep run, as yet.

However, there is a strange streak involving him that continues to stretch, and has now lasted more than 11 months. The last 15 times that Ding Junhui has lost a match on the World Snooker Tour, his opponent has then lost their very next match.

This incredible sequence began at last year's 2024 Players Championship when Ding lost 6-4 to John Higgins in the opening round. In the next round, Higgins went out to Zhang Anda.

The streak includes five tournaments from last season and 10 from this current campaign.

The last person to defeat Ding and then win their next match was Robbie Williams at the 2024 Welsh Open. Williams eliminated Ding 4-2 in the last 64 and then defeated Adam Duffy 4-2 before bowing out to Mark Allen 4-0 in the last 16.

Ding’s next scheduled appearance on the World Snooker Tour was meant to be at the 2025 German Masters in Berlin, but he withdrew a few days before the event started at the Tempodrom.