Andy Roddick won a record equalling fourth Queen's title with a hard-fought three-set victory over unseeded Nicolas Mahut on Sunday. Roddick, the second seed, will never have worked harder to win any of his titles at the Wimbledon warm-up event as France's Mahut pushed him all the way before the American finally won 4-6, 7-6 (9/7), 7-6 (7/2).
The world number five, who had won the title three times between 2003 and 2005, has tied the record for most singles crowns jointly held by Lleyton Hewitt, Boris Becker and John McEnroe.
Roddick, who has lost only twice in 25 matches at Queen's, collected a cheque for 80,500 euros but more importantly claimed his first tour title of the season.
He is moving into ominous form just in time for Wimbledon, where he has twice lost to Roger Federer in the final, and will believe he can go one better at the All-England club this year.
Mahut, ranked 106th in the world, covered his head in a towel at the end of the match to hide a few tears of disappointment, but as he prepares to qualify for Wimbledon next week he can look back at a tournament to remember.
He had beaten four seeds, French Open champion Rafael Nadal, Ivan Ljubicic, Jonas Bjorkman and Arnaud Clement, en route to the final and wasn't overawed by Roddick either.
A powerful overhead smash on the first point made that quite clear. Roddick had admitted on Saturday that he feared Mahut's go-for-broke approach would make him a tough proposition and he was proved exactly right.
Mahut, who gave a glimpse of his grass court potential when he won Junior Wimbledon in 2000, has a big enough serve but concentrates more on placement and then coming in to volley than blowing opponents off court.
Roddick managed to earn just one break point in the first set, at 4-4, when Mahut showed a rare moment of hesitancy at the net and put a volley long.
The danger was quickly snuffed out by a more accurate Mahut volley and, with Roddick visibly becoming frustrated by his failure to break, the Frenchman made him pay in the next game.
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