DING Junhui’s first-ever appearance in a World Snooker Championship final looked to be heading for disaster but a magnificent comeback means the showpiece is poised for a tantalising finale on Monday.

An estimated 150 million people in China are watching Ding become the first Asian player to compete in the final at Sheffield’s iconic Crucible Theatre and that weight of expectation appeared to be burdening him early on.

Two-time finalist Mark Selby brushed off a late finish to his semi-final the previous day and came out firing on Sunday afternoon, racing into a 6-0 lead.

Ding looked shell-shocked but rallied to crucially pinch the final two frames of the afternoon session before continuing his momentum into the evening and narrowing his deficit to 8-6 in the best-of-35 clash.

Selby – the 2014 champion and 2007 runner-up – had looked laboured at times over the past fortnight but produced probably his best snooker of the tournament to become the first man to win the opening six frames of a World Championship final since John Parrott against Jimmy White in 1991.

The Leicester cueman had begun slowly and fallen behind early in both his previous Crucible finals so, after not completing a gruelling 17-15 win over Marco Fu in the semi-finals until gone 11pm on Saturday night, it seemed likely the same would occur against Ding.

Instead the world No.1 started like a man possessed, showing his intentions with a 91 clearance in the opening frame before reeling off the next five, including a classy 120 break in frame four.

The final was beginning to bear similarities to the 1985 classic when Steve Davis led Dennis Taylor 8-0 – although the Northern Irishman famously fought back to win 18-17 in one of the most-watched events in British television history.

Yet Ding ensured he wouldn’t need quite such a mammoth turnaround as the qualifier won five of the next seven frames – including breaks of 76, 103 and 89.

The comeback began when Selby missed the final pink in frame seven, enabling the Chinese cueman to steal in and finally get a frame on the board.

The world No.17 then needed a couple of opportunities before also triumphing in the last frame of the afternoon.

The Englishman actually won the first frame of the evening but that sparked Ding into life as he produced three consecutive frame-winning breaks in one visit to make it 7-5.

Selby stopped the rot in frame 13 but once again his opponent demonstrated his ability to score heavily and quickly as a fluent 86 break narrowed the deficit to two frames again.

With 18 frames the target for victory on Monday evening, the world No.1 still had plenty of work to do if he is to clinch a second world title and join the list of all-time greats.

But with the duo having traded heavy blows so far, this could turn out to be one of the most memorable finals in snooker history.

Watch the World Championship LIVE on Eurosport, with Colin Murray and analysis from Jimmy White and Ronnie O’Sullivan.