Judd Trump and Mark Selby will contest the 2025 UK Championship final with the season’s opening Triple Crown title on the line on Sunday.
There will be a packed crowd at the Barbican Centre in York, providing the perfect backdrop to the prestigious tournament’s finale where a top prize worth £250,000 is on the line.
Trump and Selby waited 14 years to face off against one another in a final before meeting at that stage of the recent Champion of Champions in Leicester.
Less than a month later, and the English pair will once again do battle with one of the calendar’s biggest pieces of silverware on the line.
As heavyweight clashes go, it doesn’t get much bigger in a final of a major event than Trump versus Selby.
Trump, chasing a first trophy since winning the UK title for the second time a year ago, reached the last hurdle with a 6-3 defeat of Neil Robertson in Saturday’s opening semi-final.
The world number one had appeared to be in a spot of bother when he lost a tight and dramatic fifth frame on the black.
But Trump shifted through the gears thereafter, taking advantage of some sloppy play from his opponent to seal the victory with four frames on the bounce.
Later on the penultimate day, Selby produced a high-quality performance to see off the challenge of reigning Masters and British Open champion Shaun Murphy by the same margin.
The 42 year-old compiled a brace of century breaks and made three additional contributions above 70 in a strong display that extends his unbeaten streak on the tour to eight matches.
When Selby encountered Trump in the Champion of Champions final a few weeks ago, he tallied four century breaks in a dominant 10-5 triumph.
The four-time world champion has carried that form forward to York, and there has rarely been anyone stronger when in this kind of position at the business end of a prominent occasion.
Indeed, since capturing the first of his Crucible crowns in 2014, Selby has lost just five out of the 26 ranking event finals he has participated in.
As a 30-time ranking event winner, Trump obviously doesn’t have the worst record in the world either and remains the favourite in the outright betting market with 1xbet affiliate programs an option for snooker fans to avail of.
Trump, however, has lost his last two showdowns for glory in ranking tournaments – both in deciding frames – in addition to that defeat to Selby at the Mattioli Arena in November.
Trump boasts a superior head-to-head record against Selby overall with 23 wins to 19, and a 10-8 record when short-format games and six-red encounters are excluded.
Selby, however, has prevailed from both of their bigger affairs in 2025 – defying a three-ton performance from his opponent in a 6-4 win at the Shanghai Masters in July.
In both of those defeats this term, Trump was trying to get used to a new cue that he has since discarded having failed to grow accustomed with how it plays.
Back using his old and familiar wand this week, the 36 year-old has looked more confident at the table, and whether that plays a part in Sunday’s duel remains to be seen.
Either way, both players arrive at the 2025 UK Championship final with clear narratives.
Trump is searching for the spark that defined his prolific past seasons and knows that lifting a major title could reset his trajectory for this campaign.
Selby, meanwhile, is chasing his first UK crown since 2016 – a first Triple Crown title since 2021 – and appears to be reproducing the kind of ruthless snooker that has historically seen him flourish on the biggest stages.
With the stakes high and two of the sport’s biggest names colliding once more, Sunday’s showdown has all the ingredients to be a classic.
The outcome is unclear, but one certainty is that the Barbican Centre will witness another thrilling concluding chapter to one of the sport’s most iconic tournaments.
The 2025 UK Championship final will be played over the best-of-19 frames on Sunday, December 7th with sessions commencing at 1pm and 7pm UTC/GMT.
2025 UK Championship Draw
Round 1 (bo11)
(Times in UTC/GMT)
Judd Trump 6-4 Stephen Maguire
Si Jiahui 6-0 Ryan Day
Ding Junhui 6-4 Xu Si
Mark Allen 1-6 Scott Donaldson
Mark Williams 6-4 David Gilbert
Xiao Guodong 2-6 Pang Junxu
Wu Yize 6-4 Michael Holt
Neil Robertson 6-2 Julien Leclercq
Kyren Wilson 4-6 Elliot Slessor
Barry Hawkins 6-4 David Lilley
Mark Selby 6-2 Lei Peifan
Ronnie O’Sullivan 4-6 Zhou Yuelong
John Higgins 6-2 Ben Woollaston
Shaun Murphy 6-2 Lyu Haotian
Gary Wilson 5-6 Zhang Anda
Zhao Xintong 6-1 Long Zehuang
Round 2 (bo11)
Judd Trump 6-3 Si Jiahui
Ding Junhui 6-5 Scott Donaldson
Mark Williams 3-6 Pang Junxu
Wu Yize 1-6 Neil Robertson
Elliot Slessor 0-6 Barry Hawkins
Mark Selby 6-2 Zhou Yuelong
John Higgins 5-6 Shaun Murphy
Zhang Anda 6-2 Zhao Xintong
Quarter-Finals (bo11)
Judd Trump 6-2 Ding Junhui
Pang Junxu 4-6 Neil Robertson
Barry Hawkins 2-6 Mark Selby
Shaun Murphy 6-3 Zhang Anda
Semi-Finals (bo11)
Judd Trump 6-3 Neil Robertson
Mark Selby 6-3 Shaun Murphy
Final (bo19)
Judd Trump vs Mark Selby
Sunday, 1pm and 7pm UTC/GMT
How to watch the 2025 UK Championship
There are several ways to watch live action of those involved in the 2025 UK Championship draw. Here is a full list of global broadcasters:
UK and Ireland
BBC
TNT Sports and discovery+
Mainland Europe
Eurosport and locally relevant streaming platforms
(discovery+ in Germany, Italy and Austria and HBO Max in all other markets)
China
CCTV5
Huya.com
CBSA-WPBSA Academy WeChat Channel
CBSA-WPBSA Academy Douyin
Macau China
CCTV5
Hong Kong China
Now TV
Malaysia and Brunei
Astro SuperSport
Thailand
True Sport
Taiwan
Sportcast
Philippines
Tap
Mongolia
N Sports
All other territories
WST Play
Featured photo credit: WST
Classic ‘chalk n cheese’ final between two powerhouse players. Excellent finale, which I can’t even try to predict, in prospect for a UK Championship that has produced some decent matches and some scrappy scratchy stuff. For me it really sums up the first half of this season as a whole. If the ‘stars aligning’ way of thinking counts for anything then you’d think that the fates and “snooker gods” would favour Judd for another different tournament winner this season. I’m looking forward to this one.
I hope DC’s certainty this final turns out to be a thriller is proven right. On the odd occasion, these matches can fail to deliver and one player runs away with it.
Trump is appearing in a tenth Triple Crown final. He’s won five of the previous nine. Selby embarking on a 15th Triple Crown showpiece. The Leicester man has triumphed nine times in the previous 14.
Their only previous meeting at the UK Championship, witnessed Trump defeating Selby 6-3 in the quarter-finals.
Selby’s display last night was fantastic. He generally won his frames with the first scoring opportunity.
A positive for Shaun Murphy was how well he fared tactically against two men in Selby and John Higgins who set the gold standard in that department. I’ve always felt Murphy would’ve achieved even greater success if he was more adept tactically. It’s the one area he generally favours less comparably when measured against fellow top players.