Matthew Stevens ended his nine-year wait for his first ranking tournament title in York tonight by beating Stephen Hendry 10-8 to become Travis Perkins UK champion.

It was a superb performance by the 26-year-old Welshman who fought back from 4-0 and 7-5 down against the seven times world champion to collect the £84,500 winner's cheque.

Hendry though played a part in his own downfall, making some uncharacteristic errors as the match drew to a conclusion.

But he would not begrudge Stevens his moment in the spotlight after two previous UK final defeats and a 2000 world championship final beating by countryman Mark Williams.

And it was an emotional night for the Carmarthen cueman, whose career has been in the doldrums since his father, Morrell, died in February 2001.

After some promising results in the first two events of the season, including a semi-final defeat to Hendry in the British Open, he has finally come of age.

It was a real rollercoaster of a match with Hendry 4-0 ahead thanks to breaks of 68, 100, 48 and 65. Back came Stevens with a nap hand, including a 137 clearance, as Hendry accumulated only 13 points in the final four frames of the afternoon.

Then breaks of 40 and 67 gave the Scot to parity and he took the next two frames for good measure.

But Stevens made 61 off a missed Hendry opportunity to pull a frame back before the final interval. In frame 15, Stevens took the lead for only the second time in a tension-filled contest. Hendry missed a red leading 35-19 and Stevens capitalised with a 30 clearance to go two clear for the first time in the game.

Hendry's response was emphatic by almost making a 147 break Hendry potted 15 reds and 15 blacks before missing the yellow.

The yellow proved Hendry's downfall again as he missed the two-pointer clearing up on a 54 break. He was then snookered on the same ball, made the escape but let in Stevens with a clearance from yellow to pink for the title.