The top seed ended any chance of a third straight tiebreak by winning the tournament with a diving down-the-line forehand pass into the open court that left him with a grazed arm. “I was very fortunate today,” Roddick said. “I feel like I got got outplayed for the better part of two-and-a-half hours today. I just stuck around and kept trying and that's all I could really do.”
The 20-year-old Raonic, coming off his first tournament win last week at the San Jose Open, forced a third set be denying the American three match points in the second set.
Raonic, who burst onto the scene by reaching the fourth round of last month’s Australian Open, had 32 aces in the final and set a tournament record with 129 in total.
While his courageous bid to win back-to-back titles fell short, he caught the attention of Roddick. “Really really impressive,” said Roddick.
Almagro triumphs
Spain’s Nicolas Almagro won his second title in successive weeks on Sunday when he beat Juan Ignacio Chela 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 in the final of the Buenos Aires Open.