International Championship: Wilson Edges Higgins 10–8

Kyren Wilson won the International Championship for the first time on Saturday, beating John Higgins 10–8 in Nanjing. Two weeks ago he beat Jak Jones 9–2 to win the Northern Ireland Open, so this is back-to-back ranking titles and the 12th of his career. The winner's cheque is £175,000. For Higgins, 51, it is a second International Championship final defeat in a row: Wu Yize beat him 10–6 in last year's final.

Afternoon: Higgins 5–4 up

According to the World Snooker Tour's session report, the first two frames were shared before a 141 from Higgins put him in front. Wilson's 69 made it 2–2 at the interval, and breaks of 94 and 62 took him 4–3 ahead, but Higgins finished the afternoon with runs of 71 and 75 to lead 5–4.

Evening: the blue that turned it

TNT Sports' live commentary tells the rest. Wilson levelled at 5–5 in the first frame of the evening. Higgins then stole two frames Wilson had looked set to win, either side of a 130 from Wilson, to lead 7–6 at the interval, and an 80 from Wilson made it 7–7. Through the first 15 frames neither player was ever more than one frame ahead.

The 15th was the turning point. Given a second chance, Higgins looked to have the frame won, but he missed the blue while clearing and Wilson took it to lead 8–7. A 101 then put Wilson 9–7 up, one frame from the title.

He missed reds in the 17th, and this time Higgins did not slip on the blue, clearing to 8–9. In the 18th Wilson missed a red tight on the cushion at 61–13 and later fouled with Higgins needing snookers, but Higgins could not lay the snookers he needed on the colours, and Wilson potted the brown to win 10–8.

The routes to the final

Wilson, the world No 9, beat Liam Highfield 6–5 (world No 62), Ryan Day 6–1 (No 44), Oliver Lines 6–5 (No 56), Ding Junhui 6–4 (No 15) and Fan Zhengyi 9–6 (No 51). Counting from the last 64 in Belfast, that is 12 straight wins. Going into the final, the World Snooker Tour counted 15 players who had won back-to-back events on the tour; Wilson is now the 16th. It was also his 20th ranking final, and a repeat of this year's Masters final, which he won 10–6.

Higgins, the world No 6, beat Lyu Haotian 6–3 (No 65), Xu Si 6–2 (No 39), Mark Williams 6–5 (No 8), Marco Fu 6–3 (No 71) and Chang Bingyu 9–2 (No 20). He was 51 years and 173 days old on the day of the final. Victory would, the World Snooker Tour noted, have made him the oldest ranking event winner, ahead of Mark Williams, who was 50 when he won last year's Xi'an Grand Prix, and the first player to win ranking titles in his teens, 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s. Both records will have to wait.

A strong week for the home players

Twenty Chinese players reached the last 64 in Nanjing; 12 made the last 32, seven the last 16, four the quarter-finals and two the semi-finals. Chang Bingyu beat world No 1 Zhao Xintong 6–3 in the quarter-finals before losing 9–2 to Higgins; the World Snooker Tour said after that quarter-final that his run would take him into the top 16 for the first time. Fan Zhengyi, who started in the qualifiers, knocked out world No 5 Judd Trump in the last 64 and led Wilson 5–3 after the first session of their semi-final before losing 9–6. Ding Junhui went out 6–4 to Wilson in the quarter-finals, and defending champion Wu Yize lost 6–5 to Stephen Maguire in the last 32.

Next: Champion of Champions

The tour moves to Leicester for the Champion of Champions, an invitation event, from 9 to 15 November. Wilson opens against Ali Carter on 12 November at 3pm UK time. Higgins is not in the 16-man field.

More: International Championship schedule and results, match records for Kyren Wilson and John Higgins, and the Champion of Champions draw and schedule.