O’Sullivan looking to ‘ruin careers’ in UK Championship final with Ding Junhui | Snooker

Ronnie O’Sullivan says he’s motivated by the chance to “ruin the careers” of his main rivals after he breezed into the ninth UK Championship final of his profession with a 6-2 win over Hossein Vafaei in York.

Thirty years after he first gained the title as a 17-year-old in 1993, O’Sullivan will face Ding Junhui on Sunday searching for to win a record-extending eighth crown and to shut the Chinese participant out from constructing his personal assortment of silverware.

“I’m just hanging around so people don’t get as good as a career as me,” joked O’Sullivan, who exploited a sequence of pricey errors from his Iranian opponent to seal by far his most comfy victory of a gruelling week.

“If I could stop [Mark] Selby winning a few, and Judd [Trump] winning a few, and Ding and [Neil] Robertson winning a few, just ruin their careers a little bit, that would be great. Sometimes that’s just a nice motivation to play.”

The 47-year-old O’Sullivan had laboured by consecutive final-frame deciders towards Robert Milkins and Zhou Yuelong, and whereas he regarded extra clear-headed all through their semi-final, his dominance was due in half to an underwhelming efficiency from Vafaei, for whom errors in 5 of the six frames gained by his opponent served up a disappointingly one-sided encounter.

Vafaei ran aground on a break of 30 in the opener and O’Sullivan swept up with a break of 54 earlier than a 113 in the second body put him firmly in command. Vafaei confirmed a glimmer of battle as his eighth century of the match began the cost again degree, however O’Sullivan took an error-strewn fifth and restored his two-frame lead after Vafaei missed a surprisingly straightforward pink to the center.

O’Sullivan jawed a shot to the identical pocket in the subsequent, however a missed black off its spot introduced extra ache for Vafaei and when he missed the identical color to the highest pocket in the eighth body, the Iranian’s hopes of reaching a primary main profession final have been over.

“I feel as fresh as a daisy,” added a revitalised O’Sullivan. “These tournaments are not a problem. I can do it quite comfortably. I’m still happy to have got this far, it’s great and I have enjoyed my week”

Ding overcame Judd Trump 6-4 in the night semi-final to seal his final place in York for the second consecutive 12 months. He misplaced to 10-7 to Mark Allen in final 12 months’s showpiece after main 6-1 at one stage. Sunday’s conflict will see a repeat of final 12 months’s UK quarter-final, when Ding dealt out a uncommon 6-0 whitewash to O’Sullivan.

In the semi-final, Trump had began nicely with two centuries in the primary eight frames however he couldn’t shake off the dogged Ding, with the pair locked collectively at 4-4 earlier than Ding nudged by a tense ninth to put himself one body from victory.

Trump had the first chance to stretch the tie into another decider but jawed a relatively simple red to middle and Ding stepped in with a nerveless 84 clearance to black, including a stunning long red after straying out of position, to seal his swift return in the final.

Ding, who routinely saves his best form for York, admitted such a scenario had seemed impossible when he was ailing midway through his first-round match against Allen. “A lot of fans were watching and I just wanted to finish it – it didn’t matter how well I played, maybe I lost and would go home, I’d just try my best,” he said.

Of his win over Trump, Ding added: “It was a very tough match and the last few reds were a bit scrappy, but to pot that long red and go on to win the frame is saying something to myself. I hadn’t seen myself playing like that for a long time.”