Zhao Xintong claimed his second ranking title of the season with a 10-7 defeat of John Higgins in the Players Championship final in Telford.
Victory for Zhao signalled another step firmly in the right direction as he builds towards the defence of his World Championship crown in Sheffield in April.
As for Higgins, he was left to contemplate another defeat in a major final, his third of the season, and this one quickly following his loss to Kyren Wilson in the final of the Masters only last month.
Higgins initially made the early running, showing no ill-effects from his bruising semi-final encounter with Judd Trump on Saturday to ease into a 2-0 lead.
Zhao was quick to stop the bleeding, however, runs of 62 and 61 drawing him level, and the afternoon session eventually finished all square after Higgins produced a break of 90 in frame eight.
Higgins resumed by taking the first frame of the evening session, and then led again 7-6, before Zhao turned on the magic.
Up until that point, both players had been guilty of a number of unforced errors, but Zhao flicked a switch, winning the next frame, before putting together back-to-back centuries to surge 9-7 in front.
Another trademark long red got him up and running again in frame 17 and that was all he needed.
With the reds split perfectly, Zhao fairly cruised over the winning line, no century but a silky run of 92, which Higgins later described as 'poetry in motion', more than enough to see the Chinese superstar finish the job.
Zhao told Channel 5 afterwards: "This week I played not really good, but tonight, the last three frames, I played really nice.
"Our Chinese people really respect John, Ronnie [O'Sullivan] and Mark [Williams].
"They're 50-years-old and can beat anyone in the world, so I'm a lucky one."
A gracious Higgins added: "The last three frames there, it was poetry in motion.
"I couldn't pot a long ball all day, and Zhao doesn't really miss any long balls.
"And then you're starting to think that if you miss, you just know he's going to punish you.
"He's an absolute genius."