LONDON, March 25 (Xinhua) -- Ronnie O'Sullivan won the 36th ranking title of his career after defeating Neil Robertson 13-11 in the final of the Tour Championship in North Wales' Llandudno Sunday night.

The Rocket has claimed his third ranking victory of the season to equal Stephen Hendry's record, which has stood for 21 years.

By earning the 150,000 pounds top prize, O'Sullivan has moved to world number one for the first time since May 2010.

At the age of 43, O'Sullivan becomes the oldest world number one since Ray Reardon in 1983.

Overall this is O'Sullivan's fifth victory of the season, having won invitational titles at the Shanghai Masters and Champion of Champions. He has now earned over 900,000 pounds in prize money for the campaign.

He said after the match, "To be world number one is crazy really. I have only played in half of the events that everyone has played in. I don't know how that has happened."