The ongoing 2016 World Snooker International Championship in Daqing, China will be having a new king as defending champion John Higgins crashed out of the prestigious and richest ranking event outside the United Kingdom after losing to home crowd favorite Ding Junhui on Thursday.

The 41-year-old four-time world champion Scottish cueman ended his title defense after surrendering with a 6-2 defeat in their best-of-eleven quarterfinal clash against his Chinese opponent. Higgins won the first two frames to enjoy an early 2-0 lead during the match, but Ding staged a remarkable run by winning the next six frames in a row to convincingly claim the victory.

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"I played great today. John started well but I fought back very hard. I was taking my chances and made a lot of breaks," Ding, who made breaks of 81, 56, 104, 130 and 63 during the game, said after the match.

"It was a surprise as John Higgins has so much experience," he added. "I'm playing well." 

The world No. 6 Ding will be facing the current world No. 3 Judd Trump in the semifinal round.

The 27-year-old Trump, who had won two ranking event titles this year by winning the China Open and the European Masters, successfully outlasted fellow Englishman Shaun Murphy in a thrilling 6-5 triumph, based on the report from Sportinglife.

Meanwhile, in the other quarterfinal round matches of the tournament, ruling world No. 1 and world champion Mark Selby of England got the better of 11^th-ranked Joe Perry with a 6-3 victory to advance to the final four and set a matchup against Stuart Bingham.

Bingham currently ranks No. 2 in the latest world rankings. He defeated Michael Holt in eleven frames 6-5.

According to World Snooker, the International Championship was introduced to the calendar in the year 2012. It has total prize money of £657,000 (US$799,300) and it started on October 23 and will conclude on the 30^th of this month.

Tagsworld snooker, Ding Junhui, Mark Selby, stuart bingham, judd trump, John Higgins, international championship