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Fu won a ranking event for the first time in his career

Hong Kong's Marco Fu stunned former world champion Ronnie O'Sullivan by beating him 9-6 in the final of the Royal London Watches Grand Prix.

The world No 27 fought back from 5-3 down, winning six of the last seven frames to triumph in Aberdeen.

Fu's win gave him the first ranking title of his 10-year career, while O'Sullivan's title drought has now extended to 31 months.

After the match, O'Sullivan offered only one-word answers to the media.

But Fu was rather more effusive in his reaction to the biggest win of his career.

"Every time I play Ronnie I play my best snooker, so this is very special," he said after pocketing �75,000 for the win.

Fu has worked hard on his game over the last 24 months and is adamant his decision to seek expert advice from 1979 world champion Terry Griffiths was one of the main reasons he won silverware at the second ranking event of the season.

"Technically, Terry has made me a more consistent player. It's taken me a while to get used to all the technical things, but I owe him a big 'thank you'," he said.

"I hope I can play as well as that again, but it's going to be tough. I may not play as well as that ever again.

"I still need to improve a lot. There's a lot more things to improve on, but right now I'm really happy. This has given me a good platform for the season."

Fu led 3-1 at the afternoon interval thanks to breaks of 78, 110 and 74.

But O'Sullivan mounted an impressive fightback, forging ahead to take a 5-3 lead.

Fu reduced the arrears to 5-4 by winning a scrappy ninth frame on points 99-0, before impressing with a break of 94 in the next to level.

A superb 117 clearance in the next frame allowed Fu to edge ahead again and he went on take the 12th frame.

O'Sullivan pulled within one frame of levelling with a pressure break of 65, but Fu made an unbelievable 60 clearance to steal the next frame.

Fu then rattled off a match-winning break of 76.

"I've got the ability to win tournaments, but the consistency hasn't been there in the past," he said.

"Every time I get to semi-finals I say 'I can go all the way'.

"I think that, but knowing I've got the ability to do it, and actually doing it, are two different things."

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