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Judd Trump, the reigning UK Champion, defeated three-time champion Ding Junhui 6-2 to reach the semi-finals.

Trump’s defeat to Ding in the UK semi-finals two years ago will now be redeemed in some small measure by the outcome.

Ding, who won the title for the first time exactly 20 years ago, made strong starts with breaks of 89 and 83 before Trump took control and reached the semi-finals for the third time in a row.

His arrears were reduced by a 73-run run, which he then won two scrappy frames before making a break of 91 to take the 4-2.

Trump, the reigning champion of 30 ranking positions, defeated Australia’s Neil Robertson to earn a last-four appearance, beating Pang Junxu 6-4, who had held off fightback from Pang Junxu.

Trump remarked, “In the last couple of events, I have found the confidence to go for it.”

The difference in this tournament was the timing, when I had to make a clearance or pot an important ball they were going in, he said.

I feel much more self-assured. Even though I’m not at my best, I have already accomplished everything necessary at the right time.

Robertson, who was also the 2013 and 2015 snooker champion, eventually proved too strong for China’s Pang, who was attempting to advance to the quarter-finals of one of the Triple Crown tournaments.

Pang made a number of forced errors as he attempted to take the opener, but he hardly ever put Robertson under pressure.

The 26-time champion of the top 26 made just one break over 50 during the final four frames before putting together a superb run of 111 to advance to victory.

However, with only 51 on offer, Pang, 25, who was only 72-11 points down in his remarkable seventh frame, started to gain momentum.

He received a snooker instead of shaking hands, and Robertson added a free ball, which gave him the motivation to make a fantastic 51-yard clearance to pinch the frame when Robertson fouled and scored seven points when he hit the black.

According to Robertson, “That is the thing that would be on a quiz about what happened next.”

You’d never be able to do that again, they said. I did a fantastic job of winning 5-1. One of the breaks in the tournament would be [from Pang].

Qualifier Pang appeared to have found some new freedom when he made a fantastic 115 break before winning the ninth frame.

Cristhian Mosquera is expected to miss at least six weeks to add to Arsenal’s defensive woes.

The full scope of the ankle injury sustained in the 2-0 win over Brentford is being investigated by the Spanish defender.

The Gunners, who currently have first-choice centre-back Gabriel Magalhaes and William Saliba sidelined, will suffer yet another blow with Mosquera’s absence.

The 21-year-old had to be replaced after landing awkwardly, so early indications were that he would miss between six and eight weeks.

Although Mosquera and Piero Hincapie have been working together, Saliba’s availability will matter to Arsenal, who are currently top of both the Premier League and Champions League group stages.

The Formula 1 title fight is finely poised after Lando Norris and Max Verstappen appeared closely matched in Friday practice at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Norris’ McLaren headed the Red Bull of Max Verstappen, who is 12 points behind the Briton heading into the final race of the season, by 0.363 seconds at the top of the timesheets at Yas Marina.

That is a larger margin than Verstappen would have liked, but the four-time champion was closer on the race simulation runs later in the session, which are usually a more accurate gauge of form.

The third driver in contention, McLaren’s Oscar Piastri, was 11th fastest, failing to achieve a clean lap on the fastest tyres.

The Australian is 16 points adrift of Norris and faces a stiff task to enter into serious title contention.

The maths are more complicated for Verstappen, but one way he can take a fifth consecutive title is to win the race with Norris lower than third, or be second with him lower than seventh.

Norris looked impressively quick on his single lap on the soft tyres that will be used for qualifying and he and Verstappen were the stand-out drivers on the race-simulation runs.

Norris was 0.209secs ahead on the race-simulation runs overall, but Verstappen ran almost twice as many laps as the McLaren.

Stop the runs at the same point, after eight laps, before tyre degradation kicks in for Verstappen, and the Red Bull was just 0.075secs on average slower.

Norris said: “From the times, things look good at the minute, but still want a bit more from the car. Not completely happy or confident.

“We are a bit in the middle of trying some things and trying to understand some things with the car.

“Hopefully some more stuff we can get out of it, but it’s not been a bad day, for sure.

“It’s been a good positive day. We always know it gets a lot closer going into qualifying so nothing to smile about yet.”

Verstappen, seeking his fifth consecutive drivers’ championship, said: “Pretty OK. I was fairly happy with the car; we just need to be probably a little bit faster. We are still not quick enough but we have been in a decent window.

“It seems like it’s a decent gap we need to close but we will just try to put the best car forwards and let’s see how much we can find overnight. Single lap and long run needs to be better.”

Piastri, who sat out the first session as McLaren IndyCar driver Pato O’Ward fulfilled one of the team’s obligatory young driver test sessions, was not quite in the same ballpark as his rivals.

“I got there pretty well on the medium (tyre) but on the softs didn’t get the most out of the grip on that first timed lap.

“Finding my feet but clearly some things to try and improve for tomorrow. But after just one session, not too bad. The car feels like it’s in a pretty decent place. Some small tweaks of course, didn’t feel perfect out there but nothing major.

“The car’s looked quick. Just need to get some more laps under my belt and find my feet a bit more.”

On headline times, Mercedes’ George Russell was third fastest, from Haas driver Oliver Bearman, who said over the radio that he could not believe just how good the car was feeling.

Nico Hulkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto were fifth and sixth in Sauber’s final race before they morph into Audi for the German manufacturer’s debut season in F1.

Racing Bulls’ Isack Hadjar was seventh in his final race before his promotion to Red Bull in 2026, followed by Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso and the second Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli.