Paul-Henri Mathieu produced a warrior like performance to win the Allianz Swiss Open having overcome the gutsy Andreas Seppi 6-7(1) 6-4 7-5 in 2 hours and 45 minutes of exhausting tennis to collect the fourth title of his career.

Rarely will the Frenchman who has often suffered from nerves when it comes to closing out matches, have had to dig so deep to win a match, so strong was Seppi's resolve and accuracy from the baseline.

Mathieu got off to a flying start, breaking the Italian to love and holding for 3-0. But Seppi who was understandably a little nervous at the start soon settled into his rhythm and broke back in the fifth game on his third break point with a sublime backhand return winner that cleaned the baseline.

Mathieu broke again to serve for the set at 5-3 and looked certain to clinch it when he achieved double set point with a huge ace up the T.

However, Seppi would not submit; running round his backhand, the Italian rifled a forehand winner into the backhand corner of the Frenchman and followed that up with a backhand volley winner having drawn Mathieu in with a nicely disguise drop shot. Two points later Mathieu succumbed to the pressure with a double fault and bounced his racket into the ground with disgust.

With the Italian showing no signs of fatigue from his bruising encounter with Igor Andreev on the previous day, it looked like he might take his maiden title at last. He saved a break point in the fifth game of the second set with a forehand winner up the line, but Mathieu finally got the breakthrough in the ninth game with a magnificent backhand winner played on the stretch that beat the Italian for an outright winner down the sideline.

Mathieu made no mistake in closing out the set at the first opportunity as Seppi's defensive forehand found the net.

Mathieu, who had beaten Seppi in their two previous sncounters last year at the Masters Series events in Indian Wells and Paris Bercy, must have expected the Italian to wilt quickly in the final set given the accumulative attrition on his body of two tough matches played back to back. However, Seppi showed no sign that he was about to roll over and held his opening service game to love.

He then engineered for himself a break point in the sixth game, rifling a backhand winner up the line past the Frenchman who was often coming off second best in the punishing rallies. Mathieu snuffed it out with a service winner, but then faced another when the gritty Italian nailed a brilliant forehand winner up the line on the run. Mathieu responded in kind and ripped a forehand drive that caught the sideline for a clean winner.

Although the Frenchman held on to his serve in that game, he conceded it in the next game to leave the Italian serving for the title at 5-3 when Seppi's backhand return caught the net and dribbled over to Mathieu's dismay.

Undeterred, the Frenchman rallied bravely and broke the nervy Italian who double faulted to lose his serve to love.

He then held for 5-5 and broke again with a glorious forehand crosscourt winner. After saving a break point when serving for the title with an ace down the centre, he then closed out the match on his first championship point when Seppi shanked his backhand wide.

The visibly exhausted Frenchman raised his arms in delight having fought his way so bravely to victory and warmly congratulated Seppi at the net who had contributed so much to an excellent final.

Andre Jones

Roy Emerson Arena

Gstaad