Ding wins in Southampton to secure play-offs spot - 03/11/2011

Event 8 - Final: Ronnie O'Sullivan 1-3 Ding Junhui
82-0 (O'Sullivan 77), 1-74 (Ding 37, 30), 58-68 (O'Sullivan 31, Ding 32), 17-79 (Ding 76)

Ding Junhui won the latest event in the PartyPoker.com Premier League Snooker season to become the first man through to the play-offs.

Ding beat Neil Robertson 3-2 in his evening semi-final and then claimed a 3-1 final victory over Ronnie O’Sullivan, who has won the Premier League title in six of the last seven years.

After a scrappy start, Ding fouled when he missed everything trying to escape from a snooker and O'Sullivan punished him with a score of 77 to go 1-0 in front.

But breaks of 37 and 30 from Ding help him make it 1-1. O'Sullivan had a chance after a shock Ding miss that left the red over the pocket but the Englishman was then unlucky to foul.

The third frame was one of the longest of the night as O'Sullivan missed a black off the spot after scoring 31 before Ding went in-off. Ding missed after moving into a slight lead but an O'Sullivan error that left the yellow ball on the table gave Ding a chance and he won the frame on the black.

O'Sullivan looked on course to pull it back to 2-2 and force the third shootout of the day when he held a 17-3 lead. However, he let Ding back in and he finished off the match in clinical style with a break of 76 to win it 3-1.

Ding has played all of his four events now and sits at the top of the table on 16 points and can have a rest before playing in the semi-finals at the Potters Leisure Resort in Hopton-on-Sea at the end of November.