Rising star's father maps out the road to future greatness for his talented offspring
When the 18-year-old Ding Junhui was potting his way to victory in the UK Championship final against Steve Davis in York last weekend, Ding Wenjun had a different priority.
Back in the family's apartment in Dongguan, Guangdong, the senior Ding and his wife were busy wrapping up four truckloads of furniture, belongings and cues of course. The motorcade would set off the next morning, heading for Shanghai, opening a new chapter in the family's odyssey.
'The final was not broadcast live in the domestic TV network and I asked my friend, who has access to internet broadcast of the match, to keep me informed through text message,' said the father of the world's most talented snooker prodigy that sport has seen in the past decade. 'The victory really made me happy but that's all ... I am focused on our plan in Shanghai at the moment. It's more important to Xiao Hui [little Hui] and the family as well.'
For the family, it was a difficult decision to leave Dongguan, where the son, under a strict fatherhood, shaped up a game that finally took him to becoming the first non-British or Irish winner of the prestigious UK Championship. But the parents think they have to do it for their son's sake.
Ding's parents and his manager are applying, on the teenager's behalf, for an undergraduate programme in Shanghai's Fudan University while a snooker hall, co-invested by the senior Ding, will soon open in the city.