International Championship

Ding Jinhui wins his first major tournament for 5 years!! Chris Wakelin was scoring the better in the early part of the game, taking a 4-1 lead. Ding improved his scoring and won 5 frames in a row to go 6-4 up. The match see-sawed between the players until Ding went 9-7 up. In frame 17 Ding tried a long distance plant that didn't look on and he had to make. It looked like it was going wide, but in front of a loud, pro-Ding crowd, the red wriggled in the pocket and dropped in. Wakelin couldn't believe it! Ding made a decisive 64 break and left Wakelin needing 4 snookers. You could hear the groans from the crowd as Wakelin got up to try and get his snookers. When Ding got out of a snooker and left Wakelin snookered behind the pink, the concession came and Ding was a 10-7 winner!

Ding doesn't play Judd Trump in the Champion of Champions until Wednesday. Plenty of time for him to get a good rest and make the trip to Bolton.

The Weakling seemed to be suffering from a broken razor.

Well done Ding on finally being bothered enough to win something. I look forward to the next 6 months of "now Ding's turned the corner, that World title is in the bag!"

I'm a Ding fan so I'm chuffed for him.
As for talk of a World title well that seems an awfully long way off. If he can find the game that got him to a final and semi final against Selby at The Crucible a few years back with power to add then maybe. But that is a big ask.

Gary Wilson made a 147 in International Championship qualifying to wrap up a 6-3 victory over Artemijs Zizins.

Mark Allen lost 6-4 to Mitchell Mann. Good 6-5 win for Ken Doherty over wonder kid Stan Moody.

The tournament resumes on 2nd November.

Good rebound for Wilson, who I think got McGilled last week. Nice to see Mann build on his recent form too.

Ronnie O'Sullivan was 2-4 down to Allan Taylor but turned on the after burners to win 6-5. Zhou Xintong breezed through as did Xiao Guodong.

Fantastic stuff going on at the International Championship! Ronnie made 4 centuries in the last 5 frames, capping it off with a 128. Thepchaiya got a 132 break and beat Jairui Xu 6-0. Bai Yulu made a 145 break, now the record for a woman in a ranking event, but she lost 6-4 to Wang Xinzhong.

Judd Trump battled past a determined Dylan Emery 6-4. Mark Selby scraped past Lu Hongyu 6-5. He Guoqiang saw off Stuart Bingham 6-4 while Barry Hawkins edged out Jinhao Zhou by the same scoreline.
There were much more straightforward victories for Gary Wilson, Zhang Anda and Si Jiahui.

Ronnie only made one century today, but he recovered from the loss of the first 2 frames to win the next 6 in a row and defeat Sanderson Lam 6-2.

Judd is not playing at his best, but he did enough to beat Matthew Stevens 6-3.

Thepchaiya got a bye, as David Gilbert withdrew. Carter also withdrew, giving a bye to Aaron Hill.

Maguire beat Xu Si 6-4, winning the 10th frame on the black. Wins also for Zhao Xintong, John Higgins, Jack Lisowski and Kyren.

Xiao Guodong lost 6-1 to Zak Surety, it wasn't his day as he had the last 3 frames stolen from him after making an over 50 break in each. Zhou Yuelong was also a surprising loser, going down 6-4 to Noppon.

Jack Lisowski continued with his good form, beating Ronnie in a thriller! He won 6-5 on the final black!

Judd won most of the scrappy frames as he edged into a 5-3 lead over Noppon, then let loose with a 119 break to win 6-3.

Maguire surprisingly beat Kyren 6-4. Ding Junhui still in contention to retain the title after beating Liam Highfield 6-4. Si Jiahui in amazing form as he whitewashed Gary Wilson 6-0. A decisive 62 in the decider helped Zhao Xintong defeat Lei Peifan 6-5. Wins for Robertson, Higgins and Selby.

Zak Surety made a 147, but just about squeezed through by winning two close frames form 5-4 down to beat Aaron Hill 6-5. Thepchaiya lost to Scott Donaldson.