Welsh Open: China's Ding Junhui beats Mark Selby 9-6 to lift title

Ding Junhui claimed his first ranking tournament of the season by winning the Welsh Open

Ding Junhui beat Mark Selby 9-6 to win the Welsh Open in Newport.

China's Ding, 24, playing his first ranking final of the year, capitalised on some uncharacteristic mistakes from the Leicester-based world number one.

Ding won the first session 5-3 and then maintained his dominance in the second to pick up the £30,000 winner's cheque with relative ease.

He said: "Mark Selby is a very good player. He's number one but I've beaten the number one."

Selby, who made the tournament's top break of 145, paid tribute to his opponent.

He said: "I played well in patches but missed too many balls and let him off the hook in the first session.

"Ding got some momentum after that. He played well and full credit to him.

"He's a class player and thoroughly deserved to win."

Selby, who beat Ronnie O'Sullivan in the semi-final, began well, taking an early 2-1 lead with breaks of 103 and 124 but Ding hit back, winning three frames in a row.

After play resumed for the evening session Ding missed a brown and Selby reduced the arrears with a 73 break.

The Chinese player won the next two frames before Selby took advantage of a missed red with a 91.

But Ding hit-back with a 124, his first century of the tournament, to lead 7-5 at the mid-session interval and maintained his momentum after the interval, with a 130 break.

Selby then showed all his fighting qualities with a 145 total clearance and a £1,000 cheque for the highest break of the tournament.

It was cat and mouse in the final frame but Ding kept his cool to win the fifth ranking title of his career.