Rusedski takes Rhode Island title

Greg Rusedski overcame second seed Vince Spadea for his third win in four appearances at the Hall of Fame Championships at Newport, Rhode Island.

The British number two, the number three seed, showed his determination to succeed in his first final of the year by coming from a break down in the final set to win 7-6 (7-3) 2-6 6-4.

This was Rusedski’s first title since winning the same championship last year and this latest victory, his 15th career title, will be particularly pleasing as it comes at the same venue where he claimed his first career title back in 1993.

Rusedski will also be pleased with the way he responded from a demanding schedule as, because of persistent rain on Friday, he was forced to finish his quarter-final with Frenchman Antony Dupuis on Saturday before disposing of South Africa’s Wesley Moodie later in the day.

Spadea beat fellow American Paul Goldstein in the other semi-final on Saturday but later pulled out of the doubles semi-final to protect an abdominal strain.

That decision to take some rest appeared to have been a wise choice as he matched Rusedski in the opening exchanges.

The first set went with serve although Rusedski prevailed 7-3 in the tie-break for the first set Spadea had conceded since his opening set of the tournament against last year’s beaten finalist, Alexander Popp.

However, Spadea struck back to break Rusedski twice on the way to taking the second set – the first Rusedski had lost since his opening set in Newport also.

That took the match into a deciding set and Spadea, currently ranked 57 in the world, looked to be on his way to only his second career title after breaking Rusedski again.

However, Rusedski broke back to make it 4-4 and then held his serve before breaking Spadea again to clinch a hard-fought victory.