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Stuart Bingham won the first ranking tournament of his career after staging a superb comeback to stun Mark Williams in a thrilling final of the Australian Goldfields Open.

Bingham's bid for a maiden triumph looked to have been sunk as world number one Williams battled back from 3-1 down to lead 8-5 in the best-of-17 final at the Bendigo Stadium in Victoria.

However, the 35-year-old refused to concede defeat and, aided by breaks of 41, 69 and 76, levelled the scores before winning a tense deciding frame to take the title.

Earlier, Bingham could hardly have asked for a better start to the match as he took the opening frame with a 139 break - the third highest of the tournament after Williams' scores of 142 and 140 in the quarter-finals.

Williams hit back with a break of 89 in the second frame, but Bingham soon found himself 3-1 ahead after coming out on top in two scrappy frames in which the highest break from either player was 33.

At that stage Bingham would have been delighted with the way his first ranking final was going, but Williams, the two-time world champion, fought back with breaks of 85, 57 and 84 to move into a narrow lead.

The final frame of the first session saw Bingham recover to level the scores at 4-4, despite a 52 from Williams.

Williams continued his good form immediately after the interval and breaks of 52, 32 and 71 saw the Welshman rattle off three successive frames to move 7-4 ahead. Bingham responded by claiming a low-scoring 12th frame 51-10 to stop the rot, but Williams produced a break of 68 in the next to move into an 8-5 lead and within touching distance of victory.

It was a victory Williams would never taste though as Bingham fought his way back into the final before securing an historic triumph in the deciding frame, a break of 47 helping the Englishman win 80-34.

Bingham said after claiming the first ranking title of his 16-year career: "This is without doubt the best week of my life - it's just an unbelievable feeling.

"This proves the depth in the standard of snooker and shows anyone on the tour can win a tournament if they knuckle down and put the hard work in, that's all I've done."

Explaining his comeback against the world's leading player, Bingham said: "At 8-5 he had me in all sorts of trouble but the match changed when he snookered me and I got out of it and snookered him - I had hit it and hoped.

"My body language changed and I thought, 'This is your chance'.

"At 8-8 coming out to the table and the crowd's reaction gave me goose pimples and I was shaking. I had made a game of it and the momentum was with me. I played a double and if I'd missed that I would've lost 9-8."

He added on World Snooker's official website: "Now the hard work comes as I have to live up to being a ranking event winner and now I'm the hunted instead of the hunter."

Williams, who was chasing a 19th ranking title, said: "At 8-5 I was cruising and had him in all sorts of trouble. He managed to get out of a snooker and won it from then on.

"Every little flick went his way and there's nothing you can do about that. I had him perfectly at 8-5 but from then on he played well and deserved to win."