A STAR was born yesterday as 100 million viewers tuned in to watch Chinese youngster Ding Jun Hui triumph 9-5 over Stephen Hendry in the final of the China Open.

Only two days after his 18th birthday Ding became the second youngest player to capture a world-ranking title and the first wild-card entry ever to lift one of snooker's major trophies.

But Ding will not receive a penny for his triumph at Beijing's Haidian Stadium, even though the event carried ?30,000 cheque for winners. He is entitled to nothing, having withdrawn from the qualifying competition in January to accept wild-card status.

Even so Ding was overjoyed with the victory which will have a huge impact on the development of snooker in China.

He said: 'I didn't feel pressure because I looked at it as a practice match to learn from Stephen.

'Winning this will give me a lot of confidence for next season. I had a bit of luck in the afternoon session and tonight everything I did seemed to go right.'

Ding rallied from a worrying start to launch a stirring comeback, going on to take eight of the closing nine frames.

Hendry was full of praise for the youngster. He said: 'Ding's a great talent. What he's done in front of his home crowd is a real achievement.

'We'll wait to see what happens next season, but if he can break into the top 16 I'm sure he'll be winning more tournaments in the future.'

Ding, who hails from the Jiangsu province near Shanghai, whitewashed former world champion Peter Ebdon 5-0 in the last 32 and Ken Doherty 6-0 in the semi-finals, but the 80-1 pre-tournament outsider appeared to have met his match in Hendry.

The event looked set to end in anti-climax, and a heavy defeat for Ding, when Hendry established a commanding 4-1 lead with breaks of 92, 108, 46 and 57.

However, Ding began to find his range, Hendry's safety developed holes and the complexion of the match changed when the fearless teenager clawed back to 4-3.

Ding, who had never previously been further than the last 16 of a world-ranking event, also stole the eighth frame on the pink after Hendry had jawed a green and the opening session ended 4-4.

The momentum remained with Ding on the re-start as he moved 5-4 ahead with a run of 107.

He remained in front at 6-5 after splitting a pair of scrappy frames and took a 7-5 advantage with a cool 53 clearance to pink after another blunder by Hendry.

By now, Hendry was ragged. Leading by 19 in frame 13 and in the kind of scoring territory he usually relishes, the Scot missed an easy pink to the middle pocket.

Ding pounced with an 87 clearance and shortly afterwards inspired a thunderous ovation from the crowd by wrapping up a remarkable success with a break of 103.

That was Ding's sixth century break of a week that has seen him emerge as a national hero.

A disgruntled Hendry added: 'I had a terrible run of the balls from 4-2 to 4-4 and I didn't perform. I don't think I've ever found it more difficult to get position from one ball to the next. That was frustrating.'

(Agencies)