Top seed Andy Roddick earned his third title at the 436,000-dollar SAP Open ATP tennis tournament here Sunday with a 6-4, 7-5 victory over Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic.

Roddick, 25, who won back-to-back titles here in 2004-05, claimed his 24th career title with the win over the fourth-seeded Stepanek.

Roddick broke Stepanek in the first game of the match and again in the penultimate game to close out the victory in 1hr 20min.

He improved to 4-0 all-time against Stepanek.

The past two years here, Roddick was ousted in the semi-finals by Scotland’s Andy Murray, who elected to stay in Europe this year and not defend his title.

Roddick was playing in his first ATP final since earning the title in Washington last August.

In his only other ATP Tour appearance this year, world No. 6 Roddick lost in five sets to Germany’s Philipp Kohlschreiber in the third round of the Australian Open.

Roddick did help the United States open defense of its Davis Cup title with a 4-1 first-round victory over Austria earlier this month.

Stepanek, 29, was playing in a final for the first time since winning his second career title in Los Angeles last July. His other title came at Rotterdam in 2006.
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