Ronnie O'Sullivan has beaten Graham Dott 18-8 to win the Crucible final for the second time in Sheffield tonight.
O'Sullivan claimed the opening two frames of the final session to complete what looked to be a formality after a one-sided afternoon session.
O'Sullivan, who has enlisted the services of six-times champion Ray Reardon during the tournament, began the day with the match still in the balance as he was only holding a narrow 9-7 advantage.
But he reeled off a series of impressive breaks to claim seven of the eight frames in the afternoon as Dott failed to repeat his standards of the opening day.
O'Sullivan, the 2001 champion, then picked up the evening session where he left from the afternoon to put Dott out of the picture.
It was all so easy for the 28-year-old from Chigwell as Dott's safety play was not as tight, with his potting game also deserting him.
The early exchanges of the opening frame of the day were tentative and there was a bout of safety play lasting nearly 10 minutes before O'Sullivan took advantage of a red hanging over the yellow pocket.
The Rocket compiled 41 before playing safe and another run of 30 was sufficient to seal the frame.
For the first time it looked as if Dott, a 200-1 long shot at the beginning of the tournament, was beginning to run out of steam after his exertions.
He made a hash of an attempted safety shot to let O'Sullivan in for what quickly became a realistic chance for a 147.
O'Sullivan landed the first five reds and blacks and the balls were all in the open but inexplicably missed a simple red.
Dott was unable to take advantage as he missed the same ball into the opposite black pocket and a 45 from O'Sullivan extended his advantage to 11-7.
But Dott pulled himself together in the next with an excellent break of 106 - the highest break of the match - to show O'Sullivan that he should not be totally written off.
It was only his second ton of the championship compared with the 13 notched up by O'Sullivan.
Dott pulled out a couple of superb long reds in the final frame before the mid-session interval, the second of which started him off on a run of 29.
But then he missed a straightforward-looking black off its spot and O'Sullivan needed no second invitation to clear up with 65 - his seventh 50 plus break of the final.
Dott found it difficult to contain O'Sullivan when the players returned after the interval and an 85 clearance, started with a superb red down the rail, set the tone.
A 62 was sufficient to win frame 22 and runs of 46 and 32 took the next out of the reach of the player who had considered quitting the game after smashing up his cue in January.
O'Sullivan completed a post-interval whitewash with a 61 to leave Dott with an almost impossible task.
After O'Sullivan took the 25th frame Dott was facing the reality of needing to win ten frames on the trot and despite some hiccups in the last the inevitable was confirmed when 'The Rocket' claimed it by a score of 88-16.