• Indian Open

Ding ends Mehta's fairytale India run

ESPN staff
October 18, 2013
Aditya Mehta edged out Stephen Maguire © Getty Images
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Ding Junhui brought Aditya Mehta's fairytale run at the inaugural Indian Open to an end on Friday after beating him 5-0 to become the first player to win consecutive ranking events in a decade.

The world No.4 claimed the £50,000 prize money after seeing off Mehta - the first Indian player ever to reach a ranking event final - in a contest that lasted nearly two hours.

Ding won 76-36, 87-0, 107-0, 93-1, 116-1. Mehta hardly left his chair, scoring just 38 points altogether in the five frames. However the 4,000 ranking points he is set to gain will be of some consolation to the world No.72.

Not since Ronnie O'Sullivan in 2003 has a player won back-to-back ranking titles, Ding adding to his Shanghai Masters victory from September. It was the 26-year-old's eighth ranking title overall.

Mehta, ranked 72, had failed to reach the quarter-finals of any ranking event in nearly five years of trying before his run in India. He stunned former world champions Peter Ebdon and Mark Williams, as well as world No.5 Stephen Maguire on his way to the final.

Ding scored two half-century breaks in the first two frames, followed by a century break of 107. Then came a 93-point break in the fourth and a clearance of 100 to wrap things up.

Just 90 minutes before playing the final, Mehta held his nerve to edge out Maguire in a final-frame decider.

He had raced into a 3-0 lead with top runs of 81 and 132, but Maguire - who had yet to score a point so far - fought back to take the following three frames with 68 and 61 breaks. The final frame lasted four minutes short of an hour.

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