Ding Junhui out of World Snooker Championships, Yan Bingtao sole Chinese player left

Snooker star Ding Junhui’s hopes of a first World Snooker Championship win will have to wait another year after his loss to Stuart Bingham in Sheffield.

It is now 17 years of coming to The Crucible for the 34-year-old and 17 years without a title, the closest his runner-up finish in 2016.

The Chinese No 1 had entered Tuesday’s second session of their first round match with a 5-4 overnight lead but England’s Bingham rallied and levelled the scores at 9-9.

Both players had to wait to play their deciding frame, though, as rules prevented them from finishing in the afternoon session and they had to return for a single-frame shoot-out in the evening.

Former world champion Bingham won a tense affair, seizing his chance after Ding missed a red.