James Blake captured his third title in less than five months with a 6-2 3-6 7-6 (7/3) win over Russian Igor Andreev in the final of the Medibank International in Sydney.
Coming off the best year of his career that included two titles and a quarter-final appearance in the US Open, where he lost to Andre Agassi in a five-set thriller, Blake showed that he could be a dangerous opponent at the Australian Open, which begins on Monday.
The 26-year-old Blake celebrated his eighth career ATP final with his fourth overall title. He improved to 3-0 lifetime against Andreev, also beating him at the 2005 US Open and Scottsdale in 2004.
It had to be a surprising title run for Blake, who failed to get out of the first round in his previous two visits at Medibank, suffering early departures in 2003 and 2004.
However, the eighth-seeded American had a rather easy time until being pushed to the limit by Andreev, who won three titles on clay last year to finish ranked 27th in the world. Blake had dropped just one set in his previous three matches.
The 22-year-old Andreev was playing in his seventh career final.
