Lee built a 6-2 first session lead and needed just an hour on the resumption to win the three more frames he required to pocket the £82,500 top prize.

‘‘You never really know how you’re going to feel in a final but by the first interval I’d settled down and then I felt really good,’’ said Lee.

‘‘This is all down to preparation. I’ve worked harder this season than I have before and it’s nice to see it paying off.’’

Lee, from Trowbridge, Wiltshire, had survived a thrilling battle with Nigel Bond in the early hours of this morning to claim his place in the final.

He looked down and out when Bond opened a 5-1 lead but won the last five frames to secure a 6-5 victory at 1.25am.

When the final got under way, Lee dropped the opening frame but won five in a row with breaks of 52, 107 and 70 to open a commanding 5-1 advantage.

He also made 57 in the seventh frame but Gray, responsible for the exits of John Higgins, Stephen Hendry and defending champion Peter Ebdon, cleared with 81 to reduce his arrears to 5-2.

Gray, 23, had a chance to clear again in the last of the session but missed a long blue and Lee stroked it in to regain his four-frame lead.

When they resumed he comfortably won the first of the evening to make it 7-2 and produced a run of 95 to move to within one frame of victory at 8-2.

It was clear Gray could not recover and a missed blue in the next paved the way for Lee to seal the third major title of his career.

‘‘I didn’t feel very well during the match with Nigel,’’ revealed Lee.

‘‘I was boiling up and getting hot every few minutes, but luckily it was only a 24 hour bug.

‘‘I felt fine once we got down to the match but I still had to beat him, even when I was 5-1 up.

‘‘He came back and had a chance to clear up to win the next one. That was probably the key frame of the match because there’s a massive difference between 5-3 and 6-2.’’

Gray, who collected £42,500 as runner-up, had not been beyond the last 16 of a ranking tournament before the start of the Aberdeen event.

And he admitted that being centre stage in a showpiece final was an uncomfortable experience first

time round.

'‘Stephen played very well and beat me in every department, but I never really got going at all,’’ he said.

'‘I felt cold out there and I think the occasion may have got to me. Having said that, Stephen didn’t let me settle.’’