Snooker: Chinese teenager Ding Junhui continued his irresistible form to move stylishly into the semi-finals of the UK Championship in York yesterday. The 18-year-old, who won the China Open as a wild-card entry last season, won the battle of the young guns 9-5 against Australian rising star Neil Robertson and showed his impressive break-building is undoubtedly good enough to capture the sport's second most prestigious ranking title.

In his three previous matches at the final stages of the tournament Ding had conceded a total of only eight frames as he swept away Anthony Hamilton, Jimmy White and Paul Hunter, and this emphatic performance confirmed he was anything but flattered by those results.

Breaks of 102, 77 and 65 helped him to a 5-3 lead at the interval and he never looked like being pegged back on the resumption, extending his advantage to 8-4 before wrapping it up with a 92 to overturn a 36-point lead for Robertson in frame 14.