'Your mind is your best friend' - Aaron Hill talks up importance of positivity

It's just over two years since Corkman Aaron Hill caught the attention of the snooker world when he defeated six-time world champion Ronnie O'Sullivan at the European Masters in Milton Keynes.

Hill was just 18 years old and found himself catapulted into the limelight as the hype and expectation around his career went into overdrive.

However, the brutal grind of the pro game soon brought him back down to earth.

He dropped off the tour, only regaining his professional status last May when he beat China's Zhao Jianbo in Sheffield to come through Q School.

On Tuesday, he pulled off another big shock - this time knocking last year's World Championship finalist Judd Trump out of the Northern Ireland Open with a 4-1 victory in Belfast.

It was a great moment for Hill, and after a rocky two years, it's one he fully appreciated.

"It's an absolutely brilliant feeling," he told World Snooker.

"I stayed positive the whole match and said I'd rather go out by missing something than playing defensive. I played my own game from the get-go, attacked, played some good snooker. I'm really happy with how I got over the line.

"It means the world to me. When I had a big win against Ronnie two years ago I didn't quite back it up because I was inexperienced. When I started losing matches after that expectations started to build. It just felt like a monkey on my shoulders, and I couldn't get him off.

"When I dropped off the tour that kind of gave me a different perspective. When I got through Q-School it was the biggest relief ever. Hopefully now I won't look back."

Hill has a last-32 meeting with Tom Ford at the Northern Ireland Open on Wednesday night.

He will hope to reproduce the form that saw him turn over Trump but won't be taking anything for