Chinese favourites through

LOCAL hero and Paul Hunter, another darling of the Chinese crowd, both battled through to the quarter-finals of the €292,000 China Open in Beijing last night.

Ding, stepped into an uncharted region of a world ranking tournament with a dramatic 5-4 victory over Stuart Bingham, while a relieved Hunter beat Jimmy White 5-3 after leading 4-0 at the mid-session interval.

On Wednesday, Hunter will receive the results of tests carried out on six cysts that, through keyhole surgery, were recently found in his abdomen.

The outcome of that meeting with his doctor is naturally weighing heavily on the mind of the three-times Masters champion who is trying to stave off any negative thoughts by remaining in the tournament for as long as possible.

“I’m using the snooker to try and forget my problems,” said Hunter, who took only 54 minutes to complete the first four frames with breaks of 80, 69 and 82.

“Even then I knew it wasn’t over because if I can win four on the trot, Jimmy can do the same,” said Hunter.

White re-emerged with all guns blazing, fighting back to 4-3 before Hunter steadied himself and produced a superb 140 total clearance to cross the line with considerable panache.

Hunter is through to a quarter-final meeting with Ken Doherty, the 5-3 conqueror of Stephen Lee.

Ding now plays Hong Kong’s Marco Fu, who had earlier emerged with a 5-3 win over Dave Harold.

Earlier in the day six-times world champion Steve Davis was taken to hospital for an X-ray after banging his head on a steel door.

Davis had been signing autographs shortly before his match against Ricky Walden when he hit his head and was later forced to concede.

The 47-year-old began to feel light-headed as the match got under way and at the end of the third frame referee Eirian Williams escorted him to the tournament office for a painkiller.

However, he felt worse as frame four began and conceded it trailing 11-1 with Walden on a break of seven.

Davis, who was 3-0 down, was examined by a doctor before being taken to a nearby hospital.

Walden will now face another of the game’s legends, Stephen Hendry, for a place in the semi-finals.

Hendry compiled four half-century breaks to beat Ryan Day 5-1 whilst world number two Mark Williams knocked in two centuries as he defeated Adrian Gunnell 5-2.