Paul Casey gave a huge sigh of relief after clinging on for his first victory in two years.

Coasting to victory, or so it seemed, when he led the Abu Dhabi Championship by six with only eight holes to play, Casey then bogeyed three of the next four.

Although he was not looking at leaderboards and did not know it, up ahead of him South African Louis Oosthuizen posted an eight-under-par 64 and suddenly the gap was only one.

However, the 31-year-old Ryder Cup star, whose last win came in the same event at the start of 2007, parred the closing stretch for a 70 and took the £217,153 first prize with a 21-under total of 267.

Having slipped from 12th in the world to outside the top 40, the ninth European Tour title of his career should take Casey close to the top 20 again.

"That was a bit of a nervous one," admitted the former World Match Play champion.

"I started off great, but it was tricky coming in. The greens were exceptionally difficult to read and there were a couple of camera clicks which put me off.

"It feels very satisfying to get my hands on the trophy again.

"I didn't think I would have to wait so long. My game is now better than it's ever been and I've played some great stuff in spurts, but I've never really put it together.

"I've been focused very much on the majors, and performed well, and maybe neglected other tournaments. That's what I'm trying to do and it looks like it's paying off."

Defending champion Martin Kaymer tied for second with Oosthuizen thanks to an eagle on the 557-yard last, and that could be enough to take the 24-year-old German into the world's top 20 for the first time.

Londoner Anthony Wall was fourth and joint fifth came Open and US PGA champion Padraig Harrington, Northern Ireland teenager Rory McIlroy and Swede Johan Edfors, while Sergio Garcia's 64 lifted him into a tie for eighth with England's Danny Willett.

Collated final round scores & totals

(Gbr & Irl unless stated, par 72):

267 Paul Casey 69 65 63 70

268 Martin Kaymer (Ger) 68 68 65 67, Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa) 67 69 68 64

270 Anthony Wall 67 67 69 67

271 Rory McIlroy 66 69 71 65, Johan Edfors (Swe) 66 69 69 67, Padraig Harrington 71 66 68 66

272 Sergio Garcia (Spa) 70 71 67 64, Danny Willett 71 66 68 67

273 Peter Hanson (Swe) 67 71 66 69, Francesco Molinari (Ita) 67 69 71 66, Bradley Dredge 71 69 66 67

274 Phillip Archer 71 71 67 65, Thongchai Jaidee (Tha) 69 70 69 66

275 Anders Hansen (Den) 70 67 69 69, Robert Allenby (Aus) 71 68 69 67, Soren Hansen (Den) 71 66 71 67, Rafael Cabrera Bello (Spa) 68 69 69 69, Graeme Storm 69 64 69 73

276 Brett Rumford (Aus) 68 67 71 70, Stephen Gallacher 74 66 65 71, Paul Lawrie 73 70 68 65, Gary Murphy 69 72 69 66, Mark Foster 70 69 68 69, Peter Lawrie 73 70 69 64

277 Jeev Milkha Singh (Ind) 74 67 70 66, Marc Warren 70 69 70 68, Richard Green (Aus) 68 65 76 68, Pelle Edberg (Swe) 72 67 67 71, Jyoti Randhawa (Ind) 71 70 67 69, Alvaro Quiros (Spa) 69 71 70 67

278 Robert Jan Derksen (Ned) 68 72 69 69, Jean-Baptiste Gonnet (Fra) 68 72 72 66, Simon Dyson 71 68 69 70

279 Danny Lee (Nzl) 68 70 73 68, Ricardo Gonzalez (Arg) 72 67 69 71

280 Rodney Pampling (Aus) 70 72 71 67, Ross Fisher 75 67 70 68, Colin Montgomerie 72 67 70 71, Oliver Wilson 69 71 70 70, Oliver Fisher 67 69 69 75

281 Mikael Lundberg (Swe) 66 69 73 73, Jarmo Sandelin (Swe) 67 75 69 70, Alastair Forsyth 75 66 69 71, Mark Brown (USA) 72 69 70 70, Pablo Larrazabal (Spa) 71 69 72 69

282 Damien McGrane 70 72 70 70, Robert Rock 67 75 71 69, Michael Jonzon (Swe) 74 69 72 67

283 Scott Strange (Aus) 73 66 72 72, Andrew McLardy (Rsa) 68 70 72 73, Trevor Immelman (Rsa) 72 69 71 71, Jamie Donaldson 69 72 71 71, Chapchai Nirat (Tha) 70 72 71 70, Ignacio Garrido (Spa) 67 70 73 73, Gonzalo Fdez-Castano (Spa) 71 71 71 70, Thomas Levet (Fra) 69 74 71 69

284 David Dixon 70 69 73 72

285 Magnus A Carlsson (Swe) 72 71 75 67, Hennie Otto (Rsa) 73 66 73 73, Soren Kjeldsen (Den) 72 69 71 73

286 Aaron Baddeley (Aus) 72 71 73 70, Gary Orr 75 68 72 71, Martin Erlandsson (Swe) 71 71 75 69, Shiv Kapur (Ind) 72 70 77 67, Simon Wakefield 71 72 71 72

287 Paul McGinley 69 73 74 71

288 David Drysdale 72 70 74 72, Mads Vibe-Hastrup (Den) 72 71 72 73

289 Nick Dougherty 74 69 74 72

290 Chinarat Phadungsil (Tha) 72 70 72 76

291 Daniel Vancsik (Arg) 72 69 78 72, Alejandro Canizares (Spa) 73 69 73 76