On December 2006, he won three gold medals at the Asian Games, winning the Single, Double and Team Snooker competitions. The following week, he reached, as the defending champion, the quarterfinal stage of the 2006 UK Snooker Championship, and subsequently lost to his practice partner and eventual winner, Peter Ebdon, by 9 frames to 5. In December 2006, he enrolled at Shanghai Jiao Tong University to study Business Administration and Management. He is a resident of England during the snooker season. He is good friends with fellow countryman Liang Wenbo and they are training partners in Sheffield World Snooker Academy.

On 1 January 2007, he narrowly defeated Cao Xinlong 5-4 to reach the final of the Chinese National Snooker Championship in East China's Yixing, Jiangsu province, his home town. The following day, he beat Xiao Guodong in the final by 6 frames to 2, in doing so becoming the national champion once again.

On 14 January 2007, Ding made a 147 break in the opening match of the Saga Insurance Masters against Anthony Hamilton.It was the first maximum in the competition since that of Kirk Stevens in 1984, which was also the only one up to then. Additionally, Ding is the youngest player to make a 147 during a televised session (a record previously held by Ronnie O'Sullivan), and became the first Chinese snooker player in the history of BBC's coverage to make a televised maximum. He went on to make the final of the tournament, becoming the second youngest player to reach a Masters final. In it he made a confident start by winning the first two frames. However, O'Sullivan went on to produce what many regard as one of the finest displays of snooker ever seen on television. His dominance, along with the boisterous and hostile nature of the crowd, left Ding in tears during the twelfth frame, trailing 8-3 in the best of 19 frames contest. The latter appeared resigned to defeat, taking little time to consider his shot selection, and after the frame shook hands with O'Sullivan, after which the two walked arm in arm to the dressing room area, but because it had only been the last frame before the mid-session interval, and so indeed not the very last frame of the match, no-one knew if he had conceded the match, believed the match was over or was just congratulating O'Sullivan on his formidable play. He ultimately lost the match on the next frame, and later claimed that he thought the match was indeed a "best of 17".

He was next bumped out of two tournaments in a row in the first rounds, losing 5-2 to Stephen Maguire in the Malta Cup and 5-1 to Jamie Cope in the Welsh Open. By 14 March 2007, however, Ding had qualified for the televised final stages of the World Championships for the first time by beating Mark Davis in the final qualifying round. However, his losing streak in ranking tournaments that season continued with a 5-3 first round loss to Barry Hawkins in the China Open and a 10-2 loss against Ronnie O'Sullivan in the World Snooker Championship, but he still ended the season ranked in ninth place, his highest ever ranking.

<a href="http://www.candyquotes.com"><img src="http://www.candyquotes.com/mypics/ding-junhui_3.jpg"></a> <br><a href="http://www.candyquotes.com"> Candyquotes.com</a>

The following season was consistent, reaching the last 16 of all but one ranking event, but he failed to reach a single semi-final, causing him to slip down two places, to number 11 in the world rankings. At the Crucible he managed to reach the second round for the first time, beating Marco Fu 10-9 in a high quality match, but he was unable to progress further, going down 13-7 to Stephen Hendry. However, he started the next season on a high by winning the Jiangsu Classic, beating Mark Selby 6-5 in the final. On the 16th of December in his Second Round match against John Higgins at the UK Championship, Ding scored a maximum 147 break in the third frame of the match. Currently, Ding Junhui holds the record for the most unanswered points (495) in any snooker tournament. This was during the Betfred Premier League against Stephen Hendry.

Ding started well the 2009/2010 season. He reached the quarter-finals of the Shanghai Masters, and the final of the Grand Prix at Kelvin Hall, Glasgow, where he defeated Matthew Stevens 5-4 in the first round, Stephen Maguire 5-1 in the second round, Peter Ebdon 5-2 in the quarter-finals and Mark Williams 6-1 in the semi-finals. He lost to Neil Robertson 9-4 in the final. Ding reached the finals of the 2009 UK Championship after defeating Mike Dunn (9-5), Shaun Murphy (9-3), Allister Carter (9-8), and Stephen Maguire (9-5). He then defeated John Higgins in the final (10-8).