In February 2004, Ding was awarded a wildcard entry to the Masters held in London. In the wildcard round, he beat the world number 16 player Joe Perry. In the first round, he lost 5–6 to Stephen Lee after leading 5–2. In April 2005, Ding celebrated his 18th birthday by reaching the final of the China Open in Beijing, defeating world top 16 ranked players Peter Ebdon, Marco Fu, and Ken Doherty. In the final, Ding beat the world number three Stephen Hendry by 9–5 to win his first ranking tournament. The match was watched by 110 million people on China's national sports channel CCTV-5; it was the largest television audience recorded for a snooker match. In December 2005, Ding beat Jimmy White, Paul Hunter, and Joe Perry to reach the final of the UK Championship. In the final, he beat Steve Davis by 10–6 to become the first player from outside the UK to win the tournament. Ding's provisional world ranking rose from 62 at the start of the 2005–06 season to 27 at the end of the season.