BRISBANE: American Andy Roddick held off a magnificent fightback from Radek Stepanek to claim a thrilling 7-6 (7/2), 7-6 (9/7) victory in the final of the Brisbane International today.

Stepanek saved six match points in the second set tiebreak but couldn’t save a seventh and when he served a double fault at 7-8, Roddick claimed the first title of the year. Roddick seemed to be headed for an easy victory when he won the first set and led 5-1 in the second. But Stepanek stormed back against an increasingly agitated Roddick. Stepanek won five straight games to lead 6-5 but once the set went to 6-6, tiebreak specialist Roddick had the advantage.

The American raced to a 6-1 lead before Stepanek came again, winning the next five points to make it 6-6. However, the huge effort on a stiflingly hot Brisbane day seemed to take its toll on the 31-year-old Czech as his tired looking second serve sailed just over the service line.

The title is the 28th of Roddick’s career and his first in Australia. The win also put an end to Stepanek’s nine match winning streak in Brisbane, which included winning the inaugural title in 2009.

Qatar Open

Doha: Rafael Nadal, who not so long ago was dominating the men’s tour, is still without a title for more than eight months after an astonishing defeat in the Qatar Open final on Saturday.

Nadal failed to convert two second set match points in a 0-6, 7-6 (10/8), 6-4 loss to Nikolay Davydenko. Little more than a week before he begins the defence of his Australian Open title, Nadal also let slip a 3-1 final set lead, and retreated into more defensive and containing patterns which contributed significantly to the courageous Davydenko revival.

For three-quarters of an hour this had looked impossible. During that phase the Russian began uncertainly, Nadal imposed a flatter-hitting, earlier-taken, more enterprising attack which he had been employing previously this week, and had romped through seven games without reply.

When Davydenko began to play more as he had against Roger Federer in the semi-finals, Nadal fought back aggressively from 3-5 down, and looked odds on to close the match out in the tie-break. On one of his match points, at 6-5, Davydenko played too well, but on the second, at 8-7, Nadal earned himself a pressure-free hit on the forehand from inside the baseline — and put it into the net.

Once he had also let slip an early break of serve in the final set, Nadal’s lack of confidence, a long sequence without a title, and doubts about his future, began to reveal itself. He retreated more often into what he knew best —the style in which he contains his opponent’s attacks from several feet behind the baseline, relying on mobility and change-of-paced winners from counter-hitting positions.

But on hard courts that can be a risky ploy against so fine a striker of the ball as Davydenko, who had the ability to fashion quick winners from either wing and to apply a finishing volley confidently when required. He had after all won the last four of their previous meetings on this surface.

Sydney Int’l

SYDNEY: French Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova won her first-round match at the Sydney International on Sunday, but was more concerned with a gambling-related ban to a fellow Russian player.

Kuznetsova, who had a 6-4, 6-7 (3), 7-5 win over Alisa Kleybanova, said after the match that the WTA Tour should give players some guidance after Ekaterina Bychkova was handed a 30-day ban for failing to report an offer to influence the outcome of a match. On Friday, the Tennis Integrity Unit fined Bychkova $5,000 and barred the Russian from playing for 30 days, saying she failed to report that she was asked to provide inside information and throw matches.

Meanwhile, defending champion Elena Dementieva beat Francesca Schiavone of Italy 6-2, 7-5 and will next face Daniela Hantuchova, a 6-3, 6-0 winner over Virginie Razzano.