'Crazy' feeling for finalist Ding

Ding Junhui is trying to come to terms with the "crazy" feeling of reaching his second successive ranking event final.

The Chinese star saw off Stephen Maguire 9-5 in the last four of the Pukka Pies UK Championship at Telford on Friday night. That secured the 22-year-old his second final appearance in four years - just two months after he also went the distance at the Grand Prix, where he was beaten by Australian Neil Robertson in the final.

Ding told www.worldsnooker.com: "It's crazy, I've never done this before - been in two finals in a row - but the next match will be very hard. They (O'Sullivan and Higgins) are both good."

He will face either world number one Ronnie O'Sullivan or two-time champion John Higgins, who face off in Saturday's second semi-final.

The stage looked set for a tense battle on Friday night when Maguire won the first two frames of the evening session to level the scores at 5-5.

But Ding took the next four in succession - though he admitted that a piece of bad luck for his opponent in frame 11 proved to be a huge turning point in the match.

"At 5-5 there was a lot of pressure on me but I was lucky in the next frame," he said. "He potted the red and the white went in off and left me an easy chance.

"I just had to keep my concentration and make a big break."