Indian Masters champion SSP Chowrasia wants to follow in the footsteps of compatriots Arjun Atwal and Jeev Milkha Singh after he claimed the biggest title of his career.

The 29-year-old had only ever won eight times on the domestic Indian Tour but held his nerve to come out on top of a field headlined by two-time US Open champion Ernie Els in Delhi today.

He hit a flawless final round of five-under-par 67 to claim the 416,660 US Dollars (£213,996) winner's cheque by two strokes ahead of Ireland's Damien McGrane.

Chowrasia's total career earning in 10 years on the Asian Tour had totalled 240,000 dollars, while last year's third-place finish on the Professional Golf Tour of India Order of Merit earned him just under 60,000 dollars.

Singh became the first Indian player to break into the world's top 50 and also to play at the Masters, while Atwal was the first Indian to secure his PGA Tour card in 2004 before he slipped down to the Nationwide Tour last year.

And Chowrasia is keen to build on this victory and go on to match the achievements of the pair.

"I have a card until 2010 on the European Tour and I will be playing both in Asia and Europe, but I will probably play more in Europe," he said.

"It was hard to get onto the Asian Tour but now it will be a lot easier. First, I want to play on the European Tour and do well and then my target is to get onto the US Tour."

Chowrasia carded four birdies on the front nine and justified his nickname 'Chipputtsia' after he chipped-in at the third before a 25-foot putt at the 11th sent him clear.

The son of a former green-keeper at the Royal Calcutta Golf Club, Chowrasia finished second behind Atwal in the 1999 Indian Open at the same venue before he lost out in a play-off to Jyoti Randhawa two years ago, where he had a chance to win in regulation but missed a 15-foot birdie putt.

"In these 10 years, I have worked on various aspects of my game and improved my physical aspects," Chowrasia added.

"I am now more confident and feel like I can stand up to the best in the world and I am now going to work ever harder on my weak points.

"Normally I don't shoot to well in my final round, but when I have won a tournaments in the past I usually shoot five or six under and I think I played very good golf.

"On the back nine, I tried to make my pars and I am glad I was able to do that. Over the last five holes, I did think about winning and I just wanted to stay calm and focus on my target.

"This course suits my game and I always wanted to win a tournament here but I never imagined I could win a tournament of this size."

McGrane had led at the halfway point on Friday but was forced to settle for second place, which was still his highest finish on the European Tour.

He relinquished the lead ahead of the final round after carding a third-round 75 in testing blustery conditions, but he made a strong start to his challenge on Sunday after reaching the turn in two under par.

But he was unable to add to his haul on the way home.

After a bogey-birdie start to his back nine, he saw his hopes of a maiden title slip away with a bogey at his penultimate hole before a birdie at the last secured sole possession of the runners-up berth.

He said: "I bounced back whenever I made bogeys, I made birdies straight away. That seems to be the trademark of my golf.

"It's been a difficult week. This was a real test of golf and it should have suited my game. I'll make a few pounds so that's good.

"I played great golf, but SSP played great golf and I'm delighted to see an Indian winner."

Spain's former Hong Kong Open champion Jose Manuel Lara (72) claimed third at five under, a shot clear of overnight leader Raphael Jacquelin of France (74) and India's Digvijay Singh (70).

World number four Els headlined a group at three under par after securing a top-10 finish with a final-round 71, but he was left to rue an opening round three-over-par 75, which included a costly quadruple-bogey nine.

Collated final-round scores (Gbr & Irl unless stated, par 72):

279 Shiv Shankar Prasad Chowrasia (Ind) 70 71 71 67

281 Damien McGrane 67 69 75 70

283 Jose Manuel Lara (Spa) 68 72 71 72

284 Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 69 69 72 74, Digvijay Singh (Ind) 70 70 74 70

285 Gaurav Ghei (Ind) 75 69 70 71, Ernie Els (Rsa) 75 70 69 71, Thomas Bjorn (Den) 68 72 74 71, Maarten Lafeber (Ned) 69 71 73 72, Ross McGowan 72 71 70 72

286 Soren Kjeldsen (Den) 74 71 75 66

287 Graeme McDowell 69 69 73 76, Hendrik Buhrmann (Rsa) 69 69 75 74, Brendan Jones (Aus) 74 68 76 69

288 Jean-Baptiste Gonnet (Fra) 71 73 75 69, Henrik Nystrom (Swe) 70 71 74 73, Arjun Atwal (Ind) 70 70 72 76, Benn Barham 69 71 74 74

289 Martin Wiegele (Aut) 75 68 73 73, Scott Hend (Aus) 71 74 73 71, Mark O'Meara (USA) 69 73 74 73

290 Robert Jan Derksen (Ned) 74 72 73 71, Christian Cevaer (Fra) 71 75 74 70, Peter Baker 73 71 74 72, David Lynn 69 75 74 72, Ross Bain 71 71 72 76, Oliver Fisher 73 71 73 73, Jyoti Randhawa (Ind) 65 77 75 73

291 Unho Park (Aus) 71 72 76 72, Sam Little 70 75 74 72, Adam Groom (Aus) 72 73 74 72

292 Mikael Lundberg (Swe) 71 68 79 74, Simon Yates 70 74 72 76, Simon Wakefield 74 68 78 72

293 Amandeep Johl (Ind) 73 71 76 73, Prayad Marksaeng (Tha) 74 73 78 68, Mark Brown (USA) 71 75 71 76

294 Alexander Noren (Swe) 72 74 75 73, Scott Barr (Aus) 73 73 75 73, Shiv Kapur (Ind) 68 78 76 72, Keith Horne (Rsa) 70 73 80 71, Randhir singh Ghotra (Ind) 74 73 70 77, Marcus Fraser (Aus) 73 69 76 76

295 Prom Meesawat (Tha) 71 74 76 74, Fabrizio Zanotti (Par) 71 76 77 71, C Muniyappa (Ind) 69 77 77 72, Simon Khan 70 75 73 77

296 Stephen Gallacher 71 72 74 79, Leif Westerberg (Swe) 73 71 75 77, Magnus Carlsson (Swe) 70 76 75 75, Jarmo Sandelin (Swe) 73 70 77 76, Joakim Haeggman (Swe) 74 69 73 80, Phillip Archer 74 69 76 77, Shamim Khan (Ind) 73 74 76 73

297 Ashok Kumar (Ind) 72 73 75 77, Andrew Coltart 76 69 71 81

298 Jong Yul Suk (Kor) 70 74 80 74, Carlos Rodiles (Spa) 74 70 81 73, Adam Blyth (Aus) 74 71 71 82

299 Jose-Filipe Lima (Por) 72 71 79 77

300 Ali Sher (Ind) 77 70 78 75

301 Alvaro Quiros (Spa) 69 75 76 81

302 Darren Clarke 72 69 79 82

303 Richard Finch 67 77 85 74, Harmeet Kahlon (Ind) 70 75 83 75

304 Airil Rizman (Mal) 74 72 81 77

309 Rahul Ganapathy (Ind) 76 71 78 84

310 Anthony Kang (USA) 72 72 82 84

311 Sung Lee (Kor) 75 72 75 89