Judd Trump. Picture courtesy of Monique Limbos

JUDD Trump will face Ronnie O’Sullivan in this year’s UK Championship final after he was made to do it the hard way in his semi-final win against Stephen Maguire.

The Bristol star is now just one win away from winning his second UK title after fending off a strong fightback from Maguire who came back from 5-1 down to force a thrilling finish.

And Trump will be somewhat of a relieved man to have made the final after an utter dominant performance turned into a grinding and nerve-jangling victory as the pressure of closing out the match took its toll.

Trump and O’Sullivan played out the recent entertaining Champion of Champions final which O’Sullivan won after a strong fightback from Trump.

And the pair, regarded as the most exciting natural stars in the sport, will do battle once again to win snooker’s second biggest ranking event on Sunday.

But Trump will know he will have to do better than his showing tonight, especially in the second part, if he is to land the UK crown again, like he first did in 2011.

However if he plays like he did during the first six frames of the contest then snooker fans will be in for a treat as Trump produced some stunning moments to take a commanding 5-1 lead.

Maguire then closed the gap to 5-3 before the Scot dramatically reduced his deficit to 5-4 after he took full advantage of a missed final brown from Trump when the frame was at his mercy.

Maguire had the upper hand during the opening moments of frame 10 but Trump battled back before landing a snooker behind the blue at a crucial stage. And when Maguire’s escape effort saw the cueball disappear into the pocket, a relieved Trump cleared to clinch a 6-4 win.