John Higgins delighted his home fans by winning his first ever ranking event in Scotland, beating Ryan Day 9-7 in the final of the Royal London Watches Grand Prix on Sunday night.

The two-times world champion, who lives just 14 miles away from Glasgow in Wishaw, won his first ranking title since his second Crucible triumph 17 months ago. The 33-year-old lifted the trophy and pocketed £75,000 at the SECC arena.

It's the 19th ranking title of Higgins's career and his fourth Grand Prix crown, equalling the record set by Stephen Hendry.

Day played the best snooker of the tournament in reaching the final, particularly in his semi-final against Ali Carter, but seemed affected by nerves in the early stages on Sunday, making too many unforced errors.

From 7-2 down, the Welshman relaxed and got his cue arm flowing as he fought back to 7-6 then 8-7. But it was not to be for the 28-year-old as he failed to win his first ranking title.

He has now lost three finals and must be anxious to break his duck before long, though a £35,000 runner-up prize and a leap to third place in the latest world rankings will give him some comfort.

Higgins had a miserable 2007/08 campaign by his standards, failing to reach a ranking semi-final. He even admitted that his Crucible triumph in May 2007 had "papered over the cracks" of a loss of form stretching back nearly three years.

Higgins stood precariously in 14th place in the provisional rankings going into this season and his first priority should be to ensure his top 16 status.

"A few years ago people talked about the big four of myself, Ronnie O'Sullivan, Stephen Hendry and Mark Williams," Higgins said.

"Now there are a lot of great new players and people say the big four are Ronnie, Mark Selby, Stephen Maguire and Shaun Murphy.

"I still think I'm good enough to be in that group and I hope people will think of me that way now. It's not nice when you fall away and people don't expect you to win titles any more.

"My aim now is to go and win another one."