China’s top snooker player Ding Junhui once against lost to his great friend and rival Ronnie O’Sullivan when they met in the Scottish Open in Milton Keynes on Friday night. O’Sullivan extended his career record over Ding to 14-3 but he described his win as “embarrassing” after struggling with his cue tip. “I’m just so glad that’s over. I couldn’t play with that tip,” he told Eurosport after the win, which sees him face China’s Li Hang in the semi-final. “I just couldn‘t play anything out there,” O’Sullivan continued. “It was embarrassing. He probably felt sorry for me. He had so many chances, it was absolutely scary. I’m into the next round, hopefully get a new tip on.” In the end O’Sullivan, who complained about his tip after his win over Robbie Williams in the previous round, needed the Chinese No 1 to help him to victory. Ding, who had fought back from 4-2 down to take it to a decisive ninth frame, appeared to have the advantage after “The Rocket” misjudged a red to hand over control of the table but Ding missed a black to allow the Englishman to seal the win. No first final for China’s Lu or Zhou at UK Championships O’Sullivan’s next opponent, world No 37 Li, beat world No 1 Judd Trump 5-4. The 30-year-old took a lengthy deciding frame after Trump conceded needing snookers to win. Trump had reached the final of the UK Championships in the same venue last weekend, where he lost to Australia’s Neil Robertson. After his thrilling 10-9 win, Robertson said that he and Ding will be remembered for challenging UK dominance of the sport. TRUMP IS OUT Li Hang holds his nerve in a marathon contest to defeat Judd Trump 5-4 and book his place in the Semi-Finals! #ScottishOpen pic.twitter.com/aL09XG2kWt — Live Snooker (@Livesnooker) December 11, 2020 “Both myself and Ding, the game will remember us as two as being the two overseas players that sort of broke the British dominance of the sport. It was just the same people from the same countries winning the tournaments. “You look at our combined tally of events that we’ve won and it must be something like over 40 between us. “It’s amazing and I’m very proud that I can share that overseas success with Ding,” Robertson said praising the number of players coming from China, and hoping more would follow from Australia.