Ronnie O'Sullivan admits Stuart Bingham nearly landed a knockout blow before shaking off his ring rust to seal a spot in Sunday’s UK Snooker Championship final.

The Rocket had seemingly dug himself a hole that not even he could get out of, as a heavy-scoring Bingham stretched out a 4-1 lead – including a fantastic break of 137.

But O’Sullivan found his groove to tie up the scores and though Bingham momentarily stopped the rot to take himself within one frame of the victory, runs of 117 and 94 sealed a dramatic 6-5 turnaround.

“If it was a boxing match they’d have definitely stopped it and you’d have been talking to Stuart Bingham and not me,” said O’Sullivan.

“In the first five frames he just gave me a good hiding and I couldn’t compete. I thought that if kept playing like that, I’d be lucky to get a frame.

“He outfoxed me, out-potted me, and looked so comfortable around the table.

“I’m delighted to have got through, delighted to be in the final, but sometimes you can be masking a cut with a plaster.

“At the root of it I’m thinking ‘why was I pushed around so easily?’ and I can only put it down to Stuart playing lots and lots of tournaments. He’s so match-drilled, match sharp, that when he goes out there he feels like he’s getting his cue out at his local snooker club – so confident.

“Same with Judd Trump and Stephen Maguire, the best players who have been here this week have played 30, 35 times already this season, while I’ve played 12 or 13 matches.

“But if I play like I did in the last three or four frames, I’ll be alright in the final.”

O’Sullivan has reined back on the amount of tournaments he has entered over the last two years, having missed much of the 2012 season due to a dispute with World Snooker.

His participation in York this week was initially thrown into doubt after he suffered a fractured ankle while out jogging.

He added: “There’s a trade-off between me playing a lot and not as much, I can’t be enjoying running around the forest, going to the gym, chilling out as much and also be expecting to have a great game.

“You either dig in, play more tournaments and get you rewards or you pay the price some times.

“I’ve got the Championship League coming in January so that’ll be a good opportunity for me to get some more matches in.

"I’m being ultra-critical, I’m still in the final of the UK Championship but I’ve always been like that – I don’t want to paint a rosy picture because I want more, I’m greedy.”

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