Ding Junhui out of World Snooker Championships, Yan Bingtao sole Chinese player left
- China No 1 throws away lead and decisive final frame against Stuart Bingham to see dream die for another year
- Lyu Haotian’s 10-2 defeat to Mark Allen means only Yan Bingtao remains of the five Chinese players who started first round
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.
“For the first eight or nine minutes it was unbelievable safety, we weren’t giving each other an inch,” Bingham told Eurosport after the match.
Masters winner Yan Bingtao tipped to be China’s first snooker world champion
“Lucky for me I got a chance and somehow produced one of the classic 70s of all-time,” he said of his winning break.
China’s Lyu Haotian was beaten 10-2 by Mark Allen, the Northern Irishman winning his first match at the worlds in three years.
Of the five Chinese players in the first round only 2012 Masters winner Yan Bingtao has made it to the second round.
The 21-year-old will play either Shaun Murphy and Mark Davis.
