Luca Brecel pressed home his afternoon dominance into a title success, as he held off a brief fightback from John Higgins to win the Scottish Open 9-5.

The Belgian, who was irrepressible in opening up a 6-2 lead in the afternoon, was beaten in the UK Championship final a week ago, but he put that disappointment out of his mind to clinch his second ranking title – four years on from his China Championship success.

For Higgins, it is his fourth reverse in a final this season, following on from losses in the English Open, Northern Ireland Open and Champion of Champions, but he did make Brecel work for his win after being 8-2 down at one stage.

Brecel will unfortunately miss out on a place at the masters as the cut off point for qualification was the Uk championship but after this week’s performance Luca will have many years in the top 16 and plenty opportunities to play in the masters.

As for John Higgins it’s another positive tournament but another final loss and the main prize has so far this season eluded him but a trophy is surely on the way soon.