Ronnie O'Sullivan says he is motivated by the opportunity to "ruin the careers" of his major rivals after he breezed into the ninth UK Championship final of his career with a 6-2 win over Hossein Vafaei in York.
Thirty years after he first won the title as a 17-year-old in 1993, O'Sullivan will face Ding Junhui - who held his nerve to deny Judd Trump with a 6-4 win in the evening session - on Sunday seeking to win a record-extending eighth crown.
The clash will also see a repeat of last year's quarter-final when Ding dealt out a rare 6-0 whitewash to O'Sullivan before going on to the final, where he surrendered a 6-1 lead to fall 10-7 to Mark Allen.
"I'm just hanging around so people don't get as good as a career as me," quipped O'Sullivan, who ruthlessly exploited a series of costly errors from his Iranian opponent to seal by far his most comfortable victory of a gruelling week.
"If I could stop [Mark] Selby winning a few, and Judd winning a few, and Ding and [Neil] Robertson winning a few - just ruin their careers a little bit - that would be great. Sometimes that's just a nice motivation to play."
O'Sullivan was hardly an underdog heading into his first meeting with Vafaei since their controversial Crucible clash in August, but the Iranian was certainly the man in form after rifling seven centuries across the tournament's three previous rounds.
In contrast the 47-year-old O'Sullivan had laboured through consecutive final-frame deciders against Robert Milkins and Zhou Yuelong, often appearing wayward and unfocused for periods despite booking his place back in the last four.
While O'Sullivan looked more clear-headed throughout their quarter-final clash, his dominance was due in part to an underwhelming performance from Vafaei, for whom errors in five of the six frames won by his opponent served up a disappointingly one-sided encounter.
"These tournaments are not a problem. I can do it quite comfortably."
Vafaei ran aground on a break of 30 in the opener and O'Sullivan swept up with a break of 54 before a 113 in the second frame put him firmly in command.
Vafaei showed a glimmer of fight as his eighth century of the tournament started the charge back level, but O'Sullivan took an error-strewn fifth and restored his two-frame lead after Vafaei missed a shockingly easy red to the middle.
O'Sullivan jawed a shot to the same pocket in the next, but a missed black off its spot brought more pain for Vafaei and when he missed the same colour to the top pocket in the eighth frame, the Iranian's hopes of reaching a first major career final were over.
"I feel as fresh as a daisy," added a revitalised O'Sullivan afterwards. "These tournaments are not a problem. I can do it quite comfortably. I'm still happy to have got this far, it's great and I have enjoyed my week.
His opponent on Sunday Ding will be looking to avenge last year's final defeat to Mark Allen.
The Chinese 36-year-old, who also won the tournament in 2009 and 2019, had arrived in York considering withdrawal due to a serious bout of 'flu, but like O'Sullivan, had managed to chisel out final-frame wins over Allen, then Mark Williams in Friday's last eight.
Trump, also clearly still feeling the effects of illness, had reached the last four despite playing far from his best and will have been motivated by the possibility of facing O'Sullivan in the final with the title and the world number one ranking also at stake.
Trump started well with two centuries in the first eight frames but he could not shake off the dogged Ding, with the pair locked together at 4-4 before Ding nudged through a tense ninth to put himself one frame from victory.
Trump had the first chance to stretch the tie into another decider but jawed a relatively-simple red to middle and Ding stepped in with a nerveless 84 clearance to black, including a stunning long red after straying out of position, to seal his swift return in the final.
Ding, who routinely saves his best form for York, admitted such a scenario had seemed impossible when he was ailing midway through his first-round match against Allen.
"A lot of fans were watching and I just wanted to finish it - it didn't matter how well I played, maybe I lost and would go home, I'd just try my best," he admitted.
Of his win over Trump, Ding added: "It was a very tough match and the last few reds were a bit scrappy, but to pot that long red and go on to win the frame is saying something to myself.
"I hadn't seen myself playing like that for a long time."
