Britain's Andy Murray won his second consecutive title at the US$416,000 ATP SAP Open, downing Croatia's Ivo Karlovic 6-7 (3/7), 6-4, 7-6 (7/2) in San Jose, California, on Sunday in the final.
The 19-year-old Scotsman took his only prior ATP crown at this event last year, defeating Australian Lleyton Hewitt in the final, and defended the title by rallying to defeat a 103rd-ranked rival seeking his first ATP final victory.
The soon-to-be 28-year-old Karlovic had not reached an ATP quarter-final since last May at Munich but ousted US seeds James Blake and Mardy Fish and German seed Benjamin Becker to reach the final.
Murray defeated US top seed Andy Roddick, the 2004 and 2005 San Jose champion, in the semi-finals and South Korean Lee Hyung-taik in the quarter-finals.
As usual Karlovic, at 2.08m the tallest player on the ATP tour, was imperial on his own serve whacking down 26 aces which took his total for the tournament to 113.
But Murray still managed to break his serve twice in the match which lasted a lengthy 2hr 34min.
Simon victorious
France's Gilles Simon beat Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus 6-4, 7-6 (7/3) to win the US$600,000 ATP tournament in Marseille on Sunday.
The 22-year-old Simon, ranked 58th in the world but who had won only one match since last September and that was when his opponent withdrew, won the first ATP tournament of his career following victory over the seventh-seeded Baghdatis.
It was only his second ATP tour final following a defeat to Spain's Nicolas Almagro in Valencia last year.
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