China's Liang Wenbo reaches final at UK Championship

China's Liang Wenbo beat David Grace 6-4 to reach his first UK Championship final and set up a showdown against world No. 3 Niel Robertson. 

   A tense five-hour tussle in front of a packed York Barbican crowd saw Liang come from 4-2 down to win the last four frames, sealing victory after Grace passed up a golden chance to make it 5-5.

   World number 29 Liang is into the second ranking final of his career and one win away from his first title having lost to Ronnie O'Sullivan at the 2009 Shanghai Masters.  

   Robertson, the 2013 champion, whitewashed world No. 1 Mark Selby 6-0 in the other semifinal.

   Liang is already assured of a debut at the Masters at Alexandra Palace in January as the 70,000 pounds runner-up prize would be enough to leapfrog him into the world's top 16.  

   "I'm so happy. I was thinking of this match as a final, not a semifinal," said Liang.

   "I started the first frame very badly and couldn't concentrate and my head was gone. In the mid-session my coach talked to me and told me to relax and to control the table. I did well after that. If I can concentrate and stay strong in the final I will have a chance."

   Grace said: "It was a shocking miss on the pink in the last frame. It was just a twitch. I potted harder balls than that in the break and I thought I had done the hard work. Maybe I should have taken a few more seconds over it. I might have rushed it a little bit but there was no excuse for missing that."  Endi