Mark Selby reached the final of the UK Championship and guaranteed a return to top spot in the world rankings with a 9-4 win over Mark Davis.
Friends
Looking ahead to the final, Selby said: "Me and Shaun haven't played each other for a while but we have grown up together through the junior ranks and always been good friends.
"I always said to him that it would be great for us to play in a ranking final and now we are. For whatever reason before it hasn't happened, so it will be good."
On his semi-final performance, he added: "I was missing some easy balls today and I need to work on that tomorrow.
"I am definitely motivated. I didn't play fantastic and, although it was a good match of snooker, I need to play a lot better."
Davis was keen to take the positives from his defeat.
"I was a little bit nervous but I enjoyed it. In the first few I didn't quite get into position, but getting a 70-odd settled me down. I played poorly tonight, though," he said.
"But I'm not going to let it affect me in a bad way. I've had a great week and beaten some top players.
"Even though I've been a pro for 21 years, there have been some new things for me and I know that I will learn from it next time."
