Barry Hawkins won his first ranking title in three years when he survived a late scare to take the Ladbrokes World Grand Prix title.

The Ditton player led Ryan Day 9-3 at Preston’s Guild Hall before eventually taking a 10-7 win to land his third title.

Hawkins previously won the 2012 Australian Open and the 2014 Players’ Championship, the latter ironically was also held in Preston.

The win came at the right time for Hawkins, who admitted he was devastated to surrender a 4-3 lead to Anthony Hamilton in the German Masters semi-finals last time out.

It added to what has been a catalogue of heartbreaks for the world No.12, who lost a Dafabet Masters semi-final decider to Joe Perry after missing out on the Coral Northern Ireland Open to Mark King when 5-1 up.

“I’m so delighted to win another tournament,” said Hawkins. “I feel like I’ve been knocking on the door for a while.

“I’ve had a few disappointments on the way so I think I deserved that one.”

Hawkins made five century breaks as he dominated the best-of-19 final but he held his nerve in the 17th frame to take the £100,000 top prize.

Hawkins told worldsnooker.com: “I felt so good at the start of the match and played so well.

“I didn’t feel like I could miss when I got in the balls. I got ahead of myself thinking I was going to make another century to win.

“If I had lost that last frame there I don’t know what would have happened. I just managed to hold myself together and I got a lucky kiss on the blue after potting the brown.

“You can miss anything under that kind of pressure.”

Hawkins' hopes of back-to-back victories ended with a 5-4 defeat to Judd Trump in quarter-finals of the Welsh Open in Cardiff.