Ronnie O’Sullivan is losing his tag as snooker’s No1 box office star to Ding Junhui – according to supremo Barry Hearn.
The Rocket crashed out of the Betfred World Championship this week to China’s talisman Ding – last year’s Crucible runner-up.
Ding, 30, may not yet have won a world title but he is an A-List celebrity back home and regularly watched by TV audiences of more than 100million.
World No 4 Ding maintained the superb form shown against O’Sullivan in his semi-final against world No1 and defending champion Mark Selby yesterday.
He leads the Leicester Jester 5-3, after rattling in a break of 110 in the last frame of the day.
And World Snooker chairman Hearn insists that purely on his vast following it is time to acknowledge Ding as top of the pots.
Hearn, who was embroiled in a war of words with O’Sullivan in the first week of the event, said: “Ronnie is famous.
“But Ding is massive in China in a way you can’t imagine until you have been there. Ding is already the No1 or No2 most famous sportsperson in China. And he hasn’t won the world title yet.
“Him beating Ronnie justifies that support, he is the true superstar of the sport over there.
“And what he earns makes everything else pale by comparison, he is in a different league. You are talking £500,000 for a waistcoat logo.
“We want everyone to share in that. Ronnie is a massive, massive name – but I would say Ding is the most famous snooker player in the world purely on the numbers who follow him.
“It feels like a symbolic victory. We all need our national heroes, and in England we cheer Ronnie, in China they cheer Ding.
“But those heroes must deliver on the biggest stage. Ding has partially done that by beating Ronnie, And now he will want to go the whole way. Ding could be anything if he wins it.”
