Ding still suffering after Wembley upset

Twelve months after Ding Junhui's mask of Chinese inscrutability slipped against Ronnie O'Sullivan at Wembley, snooker's hottest prospect today revealed he has still not recovered from the trauma of his defeat.

On the eve of returning to the Wembley table for his Saga Insurance Masters first-round clash against world champion John Higgins, Junhui said: "I'm not as good as I was. I lost all feeling after losing to Ronnie. I've tried to get my feeling back, but I'm still bad."

Having risen to ninth in the world rankings at the age of 20, Ding can hardly be accused of playing bad snooker, even if he has not won a significant title since losing 10-3 in that Masters final. However, the impact of that tear-laced defeat by O'Sullivan proved profound. Keith Warren, Ding's manager, said: "For a time, Ding lost interest. Trying to get him to practice was next to impossible."

It is important to understand the kind of pressure Ding was under. More than 100 million Chinese watched the final, and China Central Television rescheduled programming to provide coverage of the final three rounds.

But if Ding's confidence took an emotional hit, then his victor harboured no doubts about a precocious talent. O'Sullivan, whose hopes of a fifth successive Wembley final were dashed by his shock first-round defeat by Stephen Maguire, said: "Tennis has Roger Federer, golf has Tiger Woods, Ding could do the same for snooker."

Ding is already China's third most popular sportsman behind basketball player Yao Ming and Liu Xiang, the Olympic 110metre hurdles champion and world record holder.

He said: "It is difficult for me to walk down the street in China. If I was to win the world championship it would go crazy."

Mark Selby caused the latest upset at Wembley by knocking out six-times champion Stephen Hendry. Selby, last year's World Championship runner-up, now faces Maguire.