Judd Trump sees off Ding Junhui to set up Neil Robertson semi at UK Championship

Judd Trump is one victory away from having the chance to defend his title in this year's final
Judd Trump is one victory away from having the chance to defend his title in this year's finalAFP

Judd Trump beat Ding Junhui 6-2 on Friday afternoon to progress to the semi-finals of snooker's UK Championship, where he will face Neil Robertson.

Ding had earlier stormed to a 2-0 lead over the defending champion, but that was as good as it would get for the 38-year-old, who lost the next six frames without reply to crash out at the quarter-final stage.

Ding had offered resistance up to a 4-2 scoreline, constantly getting out of jail against the Englishman's clever play, but eventually ran out of room as well as luck as Trump closed out the seventh frame and cantered home from there.

Trump will face Robertson in the final four after the latter battled past a spirited Pang Junxu 6-4 in the same session.

Australian Robertson lost the first frame before going on a run of five consecutive winning frames to put him on the brink of a comfortable victory.

However, Pang stubbornly held on, winning the following three frames - at one point scoring 232 unanswered points - to make it 5-4 and set up a tense finish.

But in the end it was Robertson who held his nerve, commanding the 10th frame after a sloppy error from Pang allowed him to close the frame and the match out.

The two other quarter-finals taking place in the evening session will see Shaun Murphy take on Zhang Anda, while Mark Selby faces Barry Hawkins.