Ding Junhui won the 2019 UK Championship after defeating Maguire. This was also his first Triple Crown event for eight years after he comfortably saw off Stephen Maguire 10-6 in the final of the 2019 UK Championship.

Ding arrived in this year’s UK Championship on a poor run of form, and even in recent weeks, he had lost in the early stages of many ranking events to the likes of Zhao Xintong, Dominic Dale, Michael Holt and David Lilley. But in the UK Championship, the 32-year-old has been in blistering form. He was oozing in confidence, and since he eliminated Ronnie O’Sullivan in the last 16, he has looked like the strongest favourite for the silverware. He has also gone up in the latest rankings after his recent win, leaping seven places to ninth in the rankings.

Stephen Maguire was also in an impeccable form in the tournament. Maguire completed a 6-0 thrashing of Mark Allen to secure a place in the finals of the UK championship in flying colours after dealing such devastating blow to Allen. However, it was unfortunate for him to lose to an impressive Ding Jun Hui in the final.

The 38-year-old Glasgow snooker player will go home with £80,000 as runner-up but misses out on a sixth ranking title and second UK Championship crown, having last won the title in 2004. He finishes the event 15th in the rankings.

In the final game, Maguire was down by 4-0 early in the match, and although he tried to salvage the situation, he couldn’t get back on level terms.

Ding won the £200,000 top prize, as well as the fourth Triple Crown title of his career, having previously won the same event in 2005 and 2009 as well as the Masters in 2011.

Jun Hui has become the fifth player to win the UK Championship on three or more occasions, joining legendary players like Ronnie O’Sullivan, Steve Davis, Stephen Hendry and John Higgins.

This win makes it his 14th career ranking title and the first title since he won the 2017 Yushan World Open, over two years ago.