China's Ding Junhui overcame an opening session blip to secure his place in the second round of the snooker world championships on Tuesday as he edged Hong Kong's Marco Fu 10-9.
The 21-year-old Ding, the youngest player ever to win three ranking titles, the China Open and UK Championships in 2005 and the Northern Ireland Trophy in 2006, led 5-1 but the less spectacular Fu recovered to trail 5-4 at the end of the opening session.
Fu carried on that run of form against a player who has yet to make it past the quarterfinals in a ranking tournament this season to take a 6-5 lead.
Ding, though, regrouped and two breaks of 97 and 114 saw him resume control of the clash, before the world No 9 took his third chance in the decider.
Ding looked to be in total control of the opening session after breaks of 113, 87 and 99 saw him soar four frames clear.
The final frame started with both players missing testing long reds, but Fu's effort ended up over the pocket, gifting Ding his first chance. The Chinese star made nine points before breaking down, and repeated the mistake soon after.
But a superb escape from a tricky snooker behind the green swung the match back in Ding's favor, and he took full advantage with a 76 break taking him into the second round.
Ding's emergence along with Fu has been credited with eliciting a huge interest in the sport in Asia which was illustrated when a staggering 110 million people tuned into the China Open final in 2005 when Ding made his breakthrough by beating seven-time world champion Stephen Hendry.
There are two other Chinese cuemen who have made the finals, Liu Chuang and Liang Wenbo.
British bookmakers William Hill face a 100,000 pounds ($200,000) payout to Dr You Sen Huang from Beijing, who, 11 years ago staked 200 pounds at odds of 500/1 on a Chinese-born player becoming world champion before 2010.
(AFP April 24, 2008)