UK Championship: Ronnie O'Sullivan to face Judd Trump in York final
Last Updated: 07/12/14 10:16am
Ronnie O'Sullivan fought back from 4-1 down to defeat Stuart Bingham 6-5 and reach the final of the Coral UK Championship for the first time in seven years.
Four-time champion O’Sullivan will face Judd Trump in Sunday's final after Trump, the 2011 champion, survived a scare to defeat Stephen Maguire 6-4.
O’Sullivan struggled in the early stages at York’s Barbican Centre, Bingham rifling in breaks of 66, 49, 73 and a 137 total clearance to charge into a commanding position.
But the Essex potter then turned on the style with breaks of 62, 68, 67 and 117 to set up a deciding frame.
O’Sullivan, who turned 39 on Friday, then rolled in a tremendous long red in the 11th frame which set up a match-winning break of 94.
O'Sullivan, who first won the tournament as a 17-year-old in 1993, is looking to cap a hugely successful year, in which he has landed titles at the Masters, Welsh Open, and Champion of Champions, as well as finishing runner-up at the World Championship.
"If it was a boxing match they would definitely have stopped it and you'd be talking to Stuart Bingham as the winner," O'Sullivan said after the match.
"In the first five frames he gave me a good hiding and I couldn't compete. If he'd kept playing like that it was 6-1 all day long, and I was lucky to get a frame.
"He outfoxed me, out-potted me and outscored me and looked so comfortable around the table. I got away with that one really. I got lucky.
"I'm delighted to be through to the final but sometimes you can just be masking a cut with a plaster. The deep root is that I'll be looking at that match and asking why was I pushed around so easily in those first few frames."
Bingham said: "I think it was when I thought about the final. I was thinking that it's not every day you get the chance to get to the UK final, and that was it.
"I didn't get a chance in the last frame. He took the bull by the horns."
Trump led Maguire 5-1 after a break of 100 in the sixth frame, but he looked in trouble when Maguire then won three successive frames before he finally made it over the line.
Looking ahead to the final, Trump said: "I've seen a few of his games, but he's Ronnie, he's going to raise his game, there's no way he's going to go out in the final and play like he has done. I'll give it 100 per cent and we'll see what happens.
"He played perfect snooker (in the Champion of Champions final) so there's a 99 per cent chance he's not going to repeat that."