Ding ousted in China Open

Ding Junhui failed to carry the form he showed in winning the PTC Grand Finals into the China Open as he lost 5-3 to Barry Hawkins in the first round.

China's top player Ding played imperious snooker to win his sixth ranking title in Galway ten days ago, but made too many errors against Hawkins as he left local fans disappointed with another early exit in his homeland.

Australian Goldfields Open champion Hawkins surged into a 4-0 lead with top breaks of 67 and 108.

World No.8 Ding mounted a comeback when taking the next three frames, breaks of 64 in the fifth frame and 53 in the seventh seeing him claw back Hawkins.

But just when it appeared as though Ding might prevail, Hawkins put together a break of 87 after Ding had left the table with 20 on the board in the eighth frame to wrap up the victory. Hawkins will now take on Stephen Maguire in the last 16.

"Barry played well at the beginning of the match, he didn't make mistakes. It's difficult to play from 4-0 down but I focused on every frame," said Ding. "I haven't been playing consistently, I can't play the same in every tournament. I might have played very well last week, but not this week. But it's not unusual in snooker, especially as I didn't have enough time to get well prepared."

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