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Ding ends title drought with International Championship triumph

Jonathan Davies in International Championship

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Ding captured his first ranking title in just under five years (Photo credit: WST)

Ding Junhui landed his first ranking title in nearly five years after beating Chris Wakelin 10-7 in the International Championship final.

The Dragon delighted his home crowd in Nanjing on Sunday, recovering from 4-1 down with a six-frame burst proving crucial as he landed the top prize of ยฃ175,000.

Ding’s victory was his 15th in ranking tournaments, and first since securing his third UK Championship crown in 2019.

It was also his second International Championship triumph, making him the third player after Mark Selby and Judd Trump to lift the trophy on multiple occasions since its inception in 2012.

Ding – also a champion in 2013 – was on the back foot early on as Wakelin took control of his third ranking final, having won the 2023 Shoot Out and been runner-up to Trump at that year’s Northern Ireland Open.

Fresh from securing a top-16 place for the first time following his dramatic 9-8 victory over Xiao Guodong in the semi-finals, the Nuneaton cueist hit breaks of 63, 92, 85 and 64 on the way to a 4-1 advantage.

However, Ding fought back with runs of 57 and 80 helping him level at 4-4, before clearing from the last red in the final frame of the session to edge his nose in front.

Wakelin had a chance to square things up at the start of the evening session, but a missed black off the spot was pounced on by the Dragon, who hit breaks of 66 and 63 to lead 7-4 and make it six frames on the spin.

Having already defeated three former World champions during a memorable week in Shaun Murphy, Mark Williams and John Higgins, the Englishman refused to lie down and stopped the rot with runs of 82 and 89 to reduce the deficit to 7-6.

The next two frames were shared. Ding restored breathing space with a break of 98, but Wakelin won a lengthy 15th frame to cut the gap to one once more at 8-7.

But the home favourite was not to be denied, and he sent the crowd into ecstasy with contributions of 72 and 64 getting him over the line and back into the winners’ circle.