For China's top snooker player, Ding Junhui, it had been a while since he had been able to break through and claim a ranking tournament as he headed into Sunday's final of the Welsh Open in Newport. Ding, looking to knock off the world number one Mark Selby to win his first ranking event since the UK Championship 26 months ago.

Ding takes the Welsh Open to land the fifth ranking title of his career.

Ding came into this matchup with Selby with a record of one win and two losses over the past two years. Selby, picked by many of the pundits to take the title from the Chinese in the final and he got off to a solid start.

Selby, who had seen off Ronnie O'Sullivan in the semi-final, registered two century breaks in the first three frames-worth 103 and 124 respectively-as he went 2-1 in front.

Ding missed a testing pink in the fourth frame to hand his opponent the chance to go three in front but although Selby dispatched the pink he failed to follow with the black. He left Ding with a tough shot for the frame but he made it to level the scores.

From there on Ding took control of the remainder of the afternoon session, winning three of the next four frames to establish a 5-3 lead. Ding's first century of the tournament, a 124, meant it was 7-5 at the mid-session interval.

The Chinese player maintained the momentum after the break, with a knock of 130 moving him to within a frame of victory at 8-5. Selby was not finished though, with a total clearance of 145 giving him the highest break of the tournament as he closed the gap to 8-6.

Ding though, would not be denied taking the 15th frame to win the race to 9, 9-6 over Selby as Ding, takes the Welsh Open to land the fifth ranking title of his career. With the win, Ding moves up to 7th in the world rankings.

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