Jurgen Melzer capped a remarkable run through the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships by beating Milos Raonic 7-5 7-6 in the final.
Austrian overcomes broken toe to lift Nashville title
Jurgen Melzer capped a remarkable run through the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships by beating Milos Raonic 7-5 7-6 in the final.
The Austrian, who has slipped from eighth to 38th in the world rankings following a back injury, suffered a broken big toe 10 days ago.
But he responded by beating top seed John Isner, third-ranked Radek Stepanek as well as Raonic, last year's runner-up who was bidding for a third title of the season.
Melzer countered the power of the 21-year-old by placing his shots well, with many going to the Canadian's backhand. The 30-year-old closed out the 97-minute match when Raonic put a backhand into the net to end a second-set tiebreaker.
"Who would have thought I would come here break my toe and end up winning the tournament," he said.
"I went through a hard time last year with a lot of back problems this is finally an achievement that puts me out of the dark times.
"This is a very important time for me. I am happy I pulled it through."
Melzer broke Raonic's mighty serve in the 11th game of the first set to take a 6-5 lead, ending the 41-minute opener with an ace out wide on his second set point that Raonic couldn't reach.
The Austrian was behind in the second but broke Raonic again in the seventh game to cut the lead to 4-3, then survived a set point in the 10th game before both players held serve to set up the tie-break.
