Mark Williams produced a stunning comeback to beat Ronnie O’Sullivan 10-5 in the final of the Tour Championship in Manchester.

Williams, who trailed the seven-time World Champion 5-3, scored two century breaks and three half-centuries as he won seven consecutive frames to triumph.

Victory won the 49-year-old a 26th ranking title of his career in front of a capacity crowd at Manchester Central Convention Complex.

“I never thought I’d be winning tournaments at 49,” Williams said.

“The World Championships are around the corner. He’s the man to beat, but you never know. I’ll try my best. He played like God for four frames and I was glad the interval came because there was no stopping him.

“He didn’t play as well tonight but I think that is because I put some pressure on him and he started to miss towards the end. I could see him getting frustrated and he missed a few he’d normally never miss but I’m over the moon with that.”

On the way to the final, Williams also beat first seed and fellow World Champion, Judd Trump in the quarter-final. A fast start against semi-finalist Mark Allen gave Williams a 4-0 lead in the first session, before he wrapped up the 10-5 victory with a break of 75.

Williams had previously lost 22 of his last 24 games with O’Sullivan so yesterday’s victory will have gotten quite the monkey of the Welshman’s back ahead of the World Championships later this month.

While O’Sullivan was unable to record a sixth title in a remarkable season to date, the 48-year-old is certain to head to the Crucible for the World Championship in two weeks as the world number one and is enjoying an unbroken spell of 734 days at the top of the rankings.

Williams, now sixth in the world rankings and appearing in his 41st ranking event final, made a strong start with three half-centuries to lead 3-1 but saw O’Sullivan, in his 64th, make breaks of 102, 127, 59 and 121 in just 37 minutes to go 5-3 ahead.

However, Williams, a three-time world champion himself, responded magnificently in the evening, winning a scrappy ninth frame before producing an array of stunning pots in a run of 104 to level the match.

Breaks of 54 and 99 swung the contest back into his favour as he went 7-5 ahead, and he was able to move towards the finish line with further breaks of 112 and 78.

Mark Williams (8) 10 – 5 Ronnie O’Sullivan (2)

Afternoon: 73‍–‍29, 10‍–‍107, 91‍–‍6, 137‍–‍0, 0‍–‍102 (102), 0‍–‍127 (127), 1‍–‍78, 1‍–‍121 (121)
Evening: 62‍–‍33, 117‍–‍0 (104), 66‍–‍42, 105‍–‍8, 112‍–‍27 (112), 78‍–‍0, 50‍–‍19