Peter Ebdon won his ninth ranking event – and first since the 2009 China Open – by outlasting Stephen Maguire 10-9 in a marathon final which lasted 7 hours 28 minutes.

The London-born player pocketed the £75,000 first prize after having seen Maguire coming back into the reckoning following a dismal start.

The 41-year-old was 5-1 up after the first session of the final, then Scotland’s Maguire bravely battled back to 8-8 in a tense concluding session of sometimes brilliant, sometimes tactical snooker. Veteran Ebdon was never behind in the match, and eventually managed to cross the winning line.

The 2002 world champion notched breaks of 107, 124, 52, 103, 65 and 103 during the match while Maguire, who beat Shaun Murphy 10-9 in the 2008 China Open final, scored runs of 53, 84, 98, 65, 70 and 97.

Ebdon has now moved to 21st from 28th in the world while Maguire rises from ninth to seventh.

Ebdon is now sure of a place in the Premier League later this year, and can look ahead to the forthcoming Betfred.com World Championship qualifiers with renewed confidence.

He said: “‘I’m delighted to win. To be perfectly honest, I feel a little bit embarrassed because I didn’t handle the pressure very well today, and I feel that Stephen played better than I did, and I feel that he deserved to win. I’m delighted to win, but disappointed with my performance and that I didn’t handle things better tonight.

“I’d love to get to the World Championship – I’m not in the top 16 anymore so I’ve got to play a qualifying match. So that’ll be tough, but my preparation this season is coming along nicely. I’m just one of a handful of players that seem to be coming into form at the right time. It’s fantastic to win the tournament, and I tried so, so hard while I was here. I’d love to win my qualifying match and get back to the Crucible. I think it would be my 21st consecutive appearance in Sheffield. That’s something to be very proud of, if I can do it.”

Maguire, gracious in defeat, said: “‘If I’d lost 10-1 or 10-2, it would have meant I wasn’t even part of the match. I just tried hard tonight to make a match of it, to make sure Peter won it, not gift him the title. Which eventually I did. I can take a lot of fighting qualities out of it.

“It’s good that I’ve beaten three of four of the best players. It’s obviously disappointing right now, but tomorrow when I look back at it, it’s another final. I’ve lost my last three or four finals now and it’s nipping at me a little bit, especially that one there. The way things are going, I’ll get to the Crucible, get to the final, and get beaten!”