Ding came from 3-1 down to beat the world champion at Wembley

In a rollercoaster match, Ding fought back from 3-1 down to level at 4-4 and then take the lead at 5-4 in the best-of-11 frames contest.

Higgins had a great chance to win the 10th frame but lost position after a simple pink, and Ding held his nerve after a nail-biting safety exchange.

Stephen Lee came back from 5-2 down to stun Graeme Dott in the evening match.

Closing Stages highlights: Dott v Lee

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Dott opened up a 3-1 lead but Lee managed to battle back to trail only 3-2 straight after the mid-session interval.

Dott's greater consistency and break-building skills stretched his lead to 5-2, but with the match at his mercy his game gradually disintegrated.

Lee levelled at 5-5 after three scrappy frames, and in the deciding frame Dott blew a 61-0 lead to let his opponent seal a remarkable comeback with a clearance of 64.

A shell-shocked Dott blamed a bad bounce off the bottom cushion in the final frame when he had worked himself into a 61-0 lead.

"It's very tough to take," said Dott.

"He loosened up at 5-2 down, but I only really got half chances. I felt fine at 5-5 but for a bad bounce at the end I could have been in the next round."

Lee said: "I was lucky not to be 4-0 down at the interval - I just didn't play."

"I've got to be pleased with a 6-5 win like that here.

"I've tried to play with a bit more light-heartedness in my game and just let it happen, and hopefully I can start things again from here."

Ding will now play Hong Kong's Marco Fu in the quarter-finals after his exciting defeat of Higgins.

It's the kind of result I've been looking for in a big match Ding Junhui

"It's the kind of result I've been looking for in a big match. I really didn't want to lose in the first round of the tournamen after doing well [reaching the final] last year," he said.

"It was difficult to win and it has helped to forget about last year's final. I played OK but I wasn't very confident on the pressure balls."

Higgins admitted afterwards that he had changed his cueing technique just hours before the match.

He explained: "I was looking at old videos of myself and I've never really had the straightest of back arms - when you look at the great cueists like Ding Junhui, Shaun Murphy and Ronnie O'Sullivan, they're all straight as a die.

"I tried it in the club, just a little tweak but I just wish I'd done it 15 years ago. It let me down a little bit near the end, when the pressure's on.