Click here for tournament results

Ronnie O'Sullivan completed a full set of ranking titles in Preston on Sunday by denying local favourite Ian McCulloch in the Totesport Grand Prix final at the Guild Hall.

O'Sullivan registered a 9-5 victory in the opening ranking tournament final of the new campaign to earn a £60,000 first prize.

It was his 16th ranking title and the Rocket now moves into third place on the all-time list, one ahead of John Higgins and Mark Williams.

However, perfectionist O'Sullivan insisted: "There is still a lot of hard work to be done and I want to raise the bar still higher.

"I don't think either of us played to our best form," said the world champion and world number one after extending his unbeaten ranking tournament run to 11 matches.

"I have set myself high standards and I don't think I was firing on any cylinders."

Despite his self-doubt, O'Sullivan was never headed in a match lasting just under four hours. He knocked in breaks of 104 and 72 to lead 4-1 and also added frame six on the black for good measure to put the contest virtually out of reach.

McCulloch, appearing in only his second major final, gave himself a glimmer of hope by taking the last frame of the first session with a break of 54.

When the match resumed the Lancashire left-hander badly needed to make inroads into the O'Sullivan lead and though he knocked in 66 to trail 5-3 it was as close as he got.

O'Sullivan, who now moves to Brighton next month for the British Open, fired in his sixth century of the competition to restore his three-frame cushion.

The next four frames were shared with McCulloch throwing himself a lifeline in the 13th by coming from 44-0 down with 78 - his highest run of the final.

He had a chance to prolong the match in frame 14 but eventually O'Sullivan rolled in 71 to take his latest title.

He later thanked mentor Ray Reardon for his help. Reardon came on board with Team O'Sullivan at last season's World Championship and he appears to have given his young charge a magic formula.

"Ray is probably the best person I have ever met in snooker," enthused O'Sullivan. "He is unbelievable and I love him to bits."

McCulloch at least went one better than his previous final appearance when losing 9-4 against Paul Hunter in the 2002 British Open. And a cheque for £30,000 helped deaden the pain of losing in front of his home crowd that included wife Wendy and daughter Maisie.

"I came here looking to win my first match of the season and maybe I should have lost to Rod Lawler. But here I am eight days later just four frames off winning the competition.

"It was a special occasion and I thought the fans were very fair. I thought they might have been biased towards myself but that was not the case.

"I have lost two finals now but I will win one - it is just a matter of when."