James Blake of the U.S. poses with his trophy after defeating Carlos Moya of Spain to win the men's singles title of the Sydney International tennis tournament at Olympic Park in Sydney yesterday. - reuters

SYDNEY, (Reuters):

American James Blake captured his sixth title in 12 months when he beat Spain's Carlos Moya 6-3, 5-7, 6-1 yesterday to win the Sydney International for the second year running.

Blake fought off a brave fightback from Moya to join Pete Sampras and Lleyton Hewitt as the only men to win the title in successive years since tennis turned professional in 1968.

"It's been a very good little run here. I hope it doesn't end," Blake told a news conference.

"That's pretty good company... last year to be compared to Arthur Ashe, this year to be compared to Sampras and Hewitt, it's staggering to me.

"I sure would like to come back here with the same kind of confidence I had this year and see what happens, see if I can get it done three times, then tell my kids one day that I did better than Pete Sampras and Lleyton Hewitt at something."

psychological boost

Moya, runner-up in Sydney in 1997 and again in 2004 when he retired from the final with a twisted ankle, looked to be heading to a straight sets defeat when he trailed 4-0 in the second before fighting back to force a third set. But Blake, ranked four in the world, ran the Spaniard ragged in the decider to gain an early psychological boost over Moya with the pair drawn to play each other on Tuesday in the first round of next week's Australian Open.

"Maybe I'll lose again against him next week, but if I play like this, I'll be happy anyway, because that means that I'll be losing to a great player, a great champion, and there's not much you can say about it," Moya said.

Blake, 27, made a flying start when he broke Moya's serve in the fourth game. The American fended off two break points on his own serve in the eighth game then wrapped up the opening set when he rifled a forehand winner down the line.

Blake, who had won his four previous matches this week without losing a set, raced into to a 4-0 lead when Moya launched his comeback.

Moya, 30, had survived four gruelling three-set matches just to make the final and the former French Open champion was starting to show signs of weariness.

He had saved a match point in his first-round win over Australian wildcard Luke Bourgeois, five match points in his second-round victory over fellow Spaniard Fernando Verdasco, then came from 5-3 down in the third set to beat Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus in the quarter-finals.

With the match slipping from his grasp, Moya threw caution to the wind, pulling back one of the breaks and winning the next three games to bring the Sydney Olympic tennis centre crowd to their feet.

Moya broke for a second time when Blake served for the match at 5-4 then a third time to win the set and force the decider before Blake raised his game in the third.

The third seed regained control when he broke Moya's opening service game, then broke him twice more to clinch the championship.