Snooker: Ding Junhui beaten by teenager James Cahill at UK Championship
Last Updated: 03/12/14 10:21am
Former champion Ding Junhui suffered a shock 6-5 loss to teenager James Cahill at the UK Championship on Tuesday night.
The 18-year-old showed nerves of steel to edge past China's two-time tournament winner.
The world number 100 from Blackpool looked to be cruising at 5-1 but Ding fought back, somehow winning frame 10 from a position of requiring three snookers, to force a decider.
Ding had his chances to complete an amazing comeback, but Cahill dug deep and eventually got over the line in a scrappy final frame to seal his place in the last 16.
Cahill will next face Mark Davis who also won a final frame to beat Joe Perry.
Stephen Maguire beat former world number one Mark Williams 6-2 with an accomplished performance that belied his recent poor form.
Maguire, who will now play David Morris, made breaks of 64, 132 in the second frame, 90, 87 and 80 to comfortably brush aside Williams' challenge.
Rod Lawler was the other evening-session winner. He beat Mark Allen 6-4 to set up a clash with Judd Trump.
Earlier, a new pair of shoes and a more playable table helped Ronnie O'Sullivan cruise through.
A typically outspoken O'Sullivan suggested after his first-round win at York's Barbican he might have to withdraw from the tournament due to the pain incurred from his broken ankle.
O'Sullivan then battled on through a second-round victory, only to slate the tables as "shocking" given their uneven bounce off the cushions.
Following the four-time champion's stinging criticisms, the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association responded on Sunday night by employing table fitters to correct the faults.
After a 6-2 triumph over Ben Woollaston in the third round on Tuesday, the 38-year-old O'Sullivan was in a far happier frame of mind.
Although trailing 2-1 early on, O'Sullivan rattled off five frames in a row that included breaks of 56, 65, 104 and 84 to set up a fourth-round clash with Matthew Selt.
Asked initially as to the state of his ankle, a smiling O'Sullivan said: "It's great!
"I couldn't use it as an excuse today. Yeah, the first two matches I struggled, but today I feel like I'm walking fine, I've new shoes.
"The others I kept looking at them and thought they were horrible, but these are quite trendy!"
O'Sullivan was also quick to praise the revamped tables, adding: "I have to say they are playing unbelievably, brilliantly well.
"No-one wants to be playing on tables...in the end I thought 'just don't use the cushions'.
"Today I wasn't confident until halfway through the match and then I thought 'these are playing properly now'.
"So fair play to the table boys and whoever has got it sorted because it's a different ball game out there."
Scotland's Graeme Dott thrashed Robert Milkins 6-0 to take his place in the last 16, compiling centuries of 117, 120 and 127 en route, with his opponent managing a paltry total of 28 points in reply.
Dott will next play in-form reigning champion Neil Robertson after the Australian beat Peter Ebdon 6-2, with each of his frames won on the back of superb breaks of 74, 108, 84, 70, 78 and 65.
Stuart Bingham came from 3-0 down to seal his place in the fourth round with a 6-5 victory over Joel Walker.
The 20-year world number 105 appeared in control on the back of breaks of 59 and 56 in frames two and three, but Bingham fought back to take a 5-4 lead.
An 83 from Walker in the 10th levelled matters again, only for 38-year-old Bingham to pounce on a mistake in the decider to rattle off a match-clinching break of 95.
