John Higgins last night added the UK Championship to his world title to become only the fourth player in history to win snooker's two most prized ranking titles in the same year.
The world number one from Scotland staged a great second-half recovery to deny Welshman Matthew Stevens the first major title of his career.
Higgins's 10-6 success at the Bournemouth International Centre was worth £75,000 with 21-year-old Stevens collecting £39,000. In addition, Higgins pocketed another £5,000 for his 141 clearance made in an earlier round as the highest break of the televised stages.
World number 26 Stevens came from 3-1 and 4-2 down to lead 5-4 after the first session. He was to win only one more frame as Higgins played snooker befitting his status as the game's best player.
He levelled at 5-5 with a break of 73 and added further runs of 84, 107, 40 and 90 to make amends for his 10-9 final defeat by Stephen Hendry in 1996.
