Ronnie O’Sullivan faces Ding Junhui in the UK Championship final on Sunday as he bids to win a record-extending eighth title. The Rocket has found form at the perfect time this week and will take some beating at the Barbican Centre in York.

After slumping through his opening two matches, the 47-year-old then breezed past Robert Milkins and Hossein Vafaei. After defeating the Iranian star in his semi-final, O’Sullivan joked that one of the reasons he is yet to retire is to hamper the careers of the younger generation who are bidding to outdo him.

“I’m just hanging around,” O’Sullivan said to the BBC after his 6-2 win over Vafaei. “I just like to think they won’t have as good as a career, beat Judd here, this one here, this one there. I am just here to spoil their parties and ruin their CVs. I don’t care about winning, making them think ‘I could have had another few if it wasn’t for him’.”

He could do just that against Ding, who defeated Judd Trump 6-4 in a semi-final that went late into Saturday night. The Chinese player has won this tournament three times and is a favourite at the Barbican, with just O’Sullivan standing in his way over two sessions today.

Follow Express Sport‘s live score updates of the UK Championship final below…

Welcome!

Hello and welcome to Express Sport‘s coverage of the UK Championship final at the York Barbican.

Ronnie O’Sullivan is hunting a record-breaking eighth title but will need to get past Ding Jinhui in order to get his hands on the trophy again.

The latter edged past Judd Trump in last night’s semi-final clash and will have high hopes of securing his fourth UK Championship title after finishing as last year’s runner-up.

Today’s final will get underway at 1pm and we’ll be on hand to bring you score updates as it progresses.

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