Ding has already won three ranking titles in his career

Junhui was 4-2 behind at one point but battled back to 6-6 before reeling off the next four frames to secure his place at The Crucible next month.

Fergal O'Brien, Andy Hicks and Marco Fu also qualified.

O'Brien beat Stuart Bingham 10-5, Hicks saw off Rory McLeod 10-4 and Fu edged out Michael Judge 10-9.

606: DEBATE How will Ding cope at The Crucible?

It will be Hicks' eighth appearance at the World Championship.

Ding was a relieved man after getting past Davis. "I didn't play that well but my safety was good," he said. "Mark put me under pressure because of how well he played. After I went 8-6 up I felt better and played two good frames to win."

Davis made breaks of 129, 73 and 79 to open up his two-frame lead early on and then produced a 117 to end the opening session with a 5-4 lead.

After I went 8-6 up I felt better and played two good frames to win Ding Junhui

Ding hit back to level before crucially winning the 13th frame on the black and then clearing from the last red to the black to go two frames ahead for the first time at 8-6.

There was no stopping him after that and breaks of 114 and 126 saw him across the line and gave him a chance to attempt to dethrone Stephen Hendry as the youngest world champion in history at just 19.

Meanwhile O'Brien made runs of 53, 44, 54 and 73 to move from 5-5 to 9-5 up against Bingham and then wrapped up the match with a 73 after Bingham broke down on 57.

His Irish compatriot Judge agonisingly missed out on joining him in Sheffield when he lost 10-9 to Marco Fu.

Judge seemed set for victory when he went 40 points up in the deciding frame but he ran out of position when well-placed and then missed a difficult red.

Fu gave himself a chance and then snookered Judge, who could only leave the ball perfectly-placed for the Hong Kong professional to snatch victory.

"Michael played really well all through the match but maybe couldn't handle the pressure at the end because he should have won," he said.

The first round draw is being made next Monday but will not be revealed until the next day.