UK Championship - Ding Dumped out of UK Championship by Part-Time Builder
Two-time UK Championship winner Ding Jinhui was knocked out of the competition in surprise fashion on Tuesday, as he was beaten emphatically by Sheffield amateur Adam Duffy.
Amateur Adam Duffy pulled off one of the biggest upsets in UK Championship history with a stunning 6-2 win over two-time winner Ding Junhui.
BBC 25 Nov 2015
Ding Junhui won the UK Championship in 2005 and 2009
The current world No. 9 fell to a surprise 6-2 defeat against the tournament's 121st seed, who said afterwards that he was "buzzing" about the result.
Ding's own press conference - which lasted barely a minute - was "littered with swear words", according to the BBC - as he complained vociferously about the condition of the table at the Barbican Centre in York.
The Chinese, the first player from outside Great Britain and Ireland to win the event when he lifted the trophy back in 2005, fell into a 3-0 hole against Duffy after the 26-year-old opened with a break of 94.
There would be only three further breaks of more than 50 in the match (all of them from Ding) as the former champion clawed his way back to 3-2, but Duffy held his nerve over some tight frames to ease to victory.
In the eighth frame he produced a dramatic snooker to shift the momentum, Ding ultimately leaving him the opportunity to clear up and move into the next round.
"I was confident going into the match because I have been working harder than I ever have before, but it's crazy. I am buzzing," Duffy said afterwards.
Duffy was a professional on tour between 2011 and 2014, but lost his card last year and has been working for his father's construction firm.
He will now face Joe Swail in the second round.
"I felt uncomfortable with the table," Ding was quoted as saying. "It's wet maybe because it is too late at night."