Trump through to UK champs final

YORK, England - Judd Trump beat Australia's Neil Robertson 9-7 to win through to the UK Championship final on Friday.

Trump, this year's beaten World Championship finalist, now has the chance to end a breakthrough 2011 on a massive high following his victory over 2010 world champion Robertson.

Melbourne cuemaster Robertson was 7-5 down but pulled back to level at 7-7, abandoning his normal free-flowing game for a slow-paced approach designed to wear his opponent down.

But the 22-year-old Englishman kept his composure and Trump will now face either Ricky Walden or Northern Ireland's Mark Allen in Sunday's final.

"It's really disappointing because that's probably a match where I can say I really threw it away," Robertson said.

"I could have been playing anyone in the top 10 tonight and I would probably have had the same result."

Trump, reflecting on the tempo of the match, said: "I think Neil tried to slow it down and make things awkward for me.

"The game went really slow and nothing happened for about 20 minutes and I was just sitting there falling asleep. He came back to seven-all and I thought he could win from there.

"In the end I think we were over-trying and that's why we started to miss a few shots," Trump said.

"It'd be nice to end the year on a high and win this tournament."

But Robertson said Trump may need to raise his game if he was to pocket the 100,000 ($157,000) cheque for triumphing in snooker's second most important competition.

"He might have to play better than that to win," Robertson said.

Agence France-Presse