Dazzling Ding masters his demons and Higgins

Ding was devastated a year ago by his tearstained 10-3 Saga Masters Final defeat to Ronnie O'Sullivan and the 20-year-old Chinese prodigy's game suffered for months afterwards.

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Chalked off: Higgins is out after failing to press home his early advantage

So his delighted airpunch on completing a 6-4 first round Wembley win over world champion John Higgins was as understandable as it was uncharacteristic of the quietly spoken world No 9.

Ding, who had only a UK Championship quarterfinal to show for the 12 months after O'Sullivan's ruthless masterclass, recovered from 3-1 down against Higgins to book a lasteight place against Hong Kong's Marco Fu.

He said: "I have to put last year's final behind me. I am still not totally confident on the pressure balls but I didn't think about last year, I just played."

Higgins, who decided to tweak his cue action just two hours before the match, became another high profile victim, following O'Sullivan, Stephen Hendry and Steve Davis out of the £460,000 total prize money event.

Speaking about his new action, Higgins said: "I was looking at old videos. The change wasn't major but it felt like I should have done it 15 years ago.

"It let me down a bit near the end when the pressure was on but I'll stick with it.

"I'm sure it will make me a better player."

Higgins saluted "fabulous" Ding for his performance in the best Masters match so far this week, including a 135 total clearance that puts him in line for the £10,000 highest break award.

The 32-year-old Scot, twice Masters champion, made the early running, securing the opening frame with a 71 break and bouncing straight back when Ding's 74 from a long red levelled the scores.

When Ding missed a red to the middle, Higgins ended a bout of safety play with a decisive 73 before going into the interval 3-1 ahead as Ding failed to recover from falling 69 behind in frame four.

He claimed the crucial fifth frame to stay in the hunt, then that magnificent 135 to level at 3-3. Higgins edged ahead again with a 62 break but Ding fired a 96 before taking a tense final frame.

Higgins said: "Small differences can decide matches. But he played well and right now he's a fantastic player.

"He's had a few defeats but that will make him stronger."