The parents of Ding Junhui, winner of the UK Championship, one of the world's toughest snooker competitions, want their son to settle down in Shanghai and try to have a normal life, writes Zhou Zuyi.

Shanghai is about to become the place Ding Junhui calls home. The teenage sensation potted his way to victory against the legendary Steve Davis two weeks ago in the final of the prestigious UK Championship. But for his parents, this winter will be remembered mostly for the family's relocation.

"I think Xiao Hui (Little Hui) will like this place," says Ding Wenjun, father of the most talented snooker prodigy the sport has seen in the past decade. He was referring to the newly decorated Dongying Snooker Hall — co-owned by the family — on Changshou Road in Shanghai's Changning District. "He can train here when the pro tour is off and Shanghai is a great city where he is going to have plenty of experience outside of the sport."

That means mainly academic experience, as far as the senior Ding is concerned. The parents decided to leave the southern city of Dongguan and settle down in Shanghai mainly because they wanted their 18-year-old son to have more of a normal life like that of his peers — for instance, an undergraduate program with the best local university.

Ding's agent is now applying for an undergraduate program on behalf of the snooker sensation. No details have been ironed out but the father admitted that venerable Fudan University is on their wish-list.

"We have delegated this to his manager. Xiao Hui told me he is interested in majors like literature or history but we just hope campus life will make him more complete," says the father. "He has had a bit too much snooker."

There's no doubt that Ding has immersed himself in snooker and billiards sport for at least the past six years. He quit school at the age of 12 and spent the all his days and nights in the snooker hall where his father worked in Dongguan. When he wasn't practicing, the young teenager traveled to competitions around the country and then around the world, testing his mettle against opposition which was more often than not double his age.

It was indeed a weird life for an adolescent: no schooling, no video games and no puppy love. But it was also an important period that gave him a killer instinct and the world the first non-British or Irish winner of the UK Championship.

"It was a gamble and we are lucky that it paid off," says the father.

Ding first picked up a cue at the age of eight and was soon labeled a prodigy in his native town of Yixing, a city in neighboring Jiangsu Province renowned around the world for its handmade porcelain teaware but not for sports heroes. But the senior Ding, a former tobacco dealer, was firmly of the opinion that his son deserved to be on a much bigger stage than his tiny hometown.

"I talked to most of the prominent billiard players and coaches in the country at the time and they all told me Xiao Hui has championship material which just further strengthened my belief," says senior Ding. "But Yixing did not have a billiard culture to groom a great player. That's why we decided to move."

So, the ambitious — and audacious — father gave up his cigarette business and sold the family house in Yixing in 1998. They traveled south and settled down in Dongguan, where the senior Ding found a job as a staff member in one of the dozens of local billiards halls. One clause in the contract was that the future UK Championship winner would be allowed to practice in the club, free of charge.

Dongguan was a stronghold of billiards in China but the sport fell out of favor — and budget— of the sports authorities in Beijing due to its non-Olympic status.

Competitions with top local players and visiting pros from Hong Kong and Macau, along with almost 24/7 practice, helped Ding reach his full potential. It was not long before his adult opponents found themselves incapable of containing the quiet boy.

An eventful 2002 saw Ding burst onto the national stage: he took the national crown in the spring, went on to dominate the Asian Championship midway through the year, followed by a victorious World Youth Championship campaign and he wrapped up the season on a high note by lifting the Asian Games trophy in South Korea.

Impressed by his performance, the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association offered him entry into the UK-based professional circuit. It took barely six months among the pros for Ding to score the second most breaks of a century in a debut pro season behind the fabled Ronnie O'Sullivan.

Ding's career soared to greater heights this year, winning the China Open tournament in April on a wild card and taking home the UK Championship silverware, the second-most important honor in the sport after the World Snooker Championship.

"A trophy and a new home, I can't think of a better way of celebrating the new year," says the delighted father. "But it's just the end of the beginning. I'm sure."