China's Ding Junhui won his first Masters title late last night at Wembley defeating Hong Kong's Marco Fu by the comfortable margin of 10 rames to 4 in a historic first all-Asian final.
Ding hit Fu hard right from the start, carving out a 6-2 lead thanks in part to two frames of 120 and 74, before Fu suggested a comeback in the evening session winning two of the first three framesuntil he was halted by a stunning snooker laid on by his 23-year-old opponent in the 11th frame that did for him.
After that Ding rattled in frame-winning breaks of94, 83 and 85 to give Fu no chance of catching him. The Chinese star thus made up for losing in the 2007 Masters final where he was well beaten by Ronnie O'Sullivan. He also avenged two recent, high profile defeats by Fu, 10-9 in the first round of the 2008 world championships and in last November's Asian Games.
Although even this win may not make Ding a household name in the UK, an estimated 100 million people watched him triumph back home in China on TV.
