NEIL Robertson has won the 2012 BGC Masters title after beating Shaun Murphy 10-6 in the final at London’s Alexandra Palace.

The afternoon session was a tense yet high quality affair, with neither player managing to stamp their authority on the match, but Robertson took the final two frames to lead 5-3.

Murphy began the evening strongly as he won the ninth frame with two high-scoring visits, but Robertson laid down his marker in the next with a break of 101 to restore his two-frame advantage.

Both players made mistakes early in the eleventh, but a superb long red got Murphy back into the frame, before the Australian responded with one of his own to put him on his way to a 7-4 lead.

An extended safety battle at the start of the 12th was ended when Robertson potted a superb red in the right middle pocket, which started a break of 78 which saw him extend his lead to 8-4 going into the mid-session interval.

Robertson, who had never progressed beyond the quarter-final stages of the Masters until this week, took advantage of a Murphy error in the 13th and made a run of 76 to leave him requiring just one more to take the title.

With little to lose, Murphy took a devil-may-care attitude to the match, and started taking on some ambitious long shots with considerable success. After rapidly taking frame 14, the world number seven then produced a stunning long pot on the blue from the top end of the table into the yellow pocket, which set up a break of 86 that reduced his deficit to 9-6.

Robertson looked set to take the match after amassing a break of 70 in the next frame, but a simple miss on a red allowed Murphy in, who, requiring just one snooker, made a fight of it. However, he could not capitalise and Robertson returned to finish the frame off and complete a famous victory and £150,000 prize money.

After the match Robertson, accompanied in his arms by his two-year-old son, said: “I think that a good start was really important.

“I was quite lucky to be in there at three-all and after that I think I played some really good match snooker.

“It means a lot. After the World Championship this is the tournament I really wanted to win.

“My path to the final definitely hasn’t been easy but I’ve stuck to it, played some really good stuff and I’m over the moon.

“At the start of the season I wanted to get to the latter stages of most of the events.

“To win the Masters has made the season for me really.”