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Sizzling Soderling takes season tally to three

Robin Soderling has only been beaten once this year © Getty Images

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Robin Soderling extended his unrivalled start to the 2011 ATP Tour calendar, lifting his third title of the year against Marin Cilic in the Open 13 final in Marseille.

Soderling, who has now won 17 of 18 matches since the turn of the year, was forced to battle from a set down to beat Cilic, eventually triumphing 6-7(8) 6-3 6-3. Victory adds the Open 13 title to his earlier successes in Brisbane and Rotterdam.

The Swede had not dropped a set en route to Sunday's final, and in 31 previous service games only Nicolas Mahut had broken on the solitary occasion. However, after Soderling and Cilic both penetrated each other's serve in the opening set in Marseille, it was the Croatian who snatched a close tiebreaker to assume the advantage.

In contrast to his opponent, Cilic had become accustomed to three-setters throughout the week, going the distance against Stephane Bohli and Mikhail Youzhny. However, that experience helped little as Soderling broke three times during a one-sided second set to level the contest.

The No. 1 seed had now had plenty of time to get his eye in on the Cilic serve, which coughed up three double-faults in the final stanza, and Soderling took advantage to clinch victory in a little over two hours.

Andy Roddick prevented fast-rising Canadian Milos Raonic from recording back to back tournament wins in just his ninth ATP Tour event at the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships in Memphis.

Roddick completed a hard-fought 7-6 (7-5) 6-7 (11-9) 7-5 victory with the shot of the match, a passing winner played while diving horizontally through the air.

The American celebrated his 30th career title but all eyes are on the talented Raonic, who Roddick admitted he was lucky to beat and said has a massive future ahead of him.

"Winning tennis tournaments I don't ever take for granted," Roddick said. "I've won 30 of them now, but I think every one of them is just as exciting. I get just as much joy today as I did my first one.

"He [Raonic] is as exciting of a talent as we've seen in a while. The good thing for him is he's going to be able to learn on the job because that serve is going to win him a lot of matches, even if he goes up and down with the rest of his play.

"It's one of the bigger serves I've seen. I still think he can learn a lot about playing the game, but it won't surprise me if he's top 10 sooner rather than later."

The Copa Claro final in Argentina went the way of Nicolas Almagro, who beat home favourite Juan Ignacio Chela 6-3 3-6 6-4. Having won last week in Sao Paulo, Almagro joins Soderling as the only men to have won multiple times on the ATP Tour this season.

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