<div id="subtitle">Andy Roddick wins Brisbane International, beats defending champion Stepanek in 2 sets</div><div><p>Top-seeded Andy Roddick survived a second-set collapse Sunday to win the Brisbane International title, beating defending champion Radek Stepanek after the Czech player double-faulted on match point.</p><p>The American's 7-6 (2), 7-6 (7) victory in the final capped his first tournament in nearly three months since a season-ending knee injury in 2009.</p><p>"Radek, I know you won here last year and you were undefeated on this court and for a while I thought it might be your destiny," Roddick told the crowd at Pat Rafter Arena after his win.</p><p>"One thing about you, you get to every ball and never give up the fight — that's to be applauded."</p><p>Roddick nearly let the match slip away. He led 4-0 in the second set before Stepanek came back to take a 6-5 lead, with Roddick needing to hold service to force a tiebreaker.</p><p>The American dominated early in the tiebreaker, but Stepanek came from 6-1 down to make it close.</p><p>The Czech player held a set point at 7-6 in the second-set tiebreaker. Roddick won the next two points on serve, then watched Stepanek double-fault to hand him the title.</p><p>The lopsided tiebreaker loss in the first set seemed to deflate Stepanek. Serving to open the second set, the Czech hit a forehand into the net, double-faulted, flubbed a backhand and double-faulted again on break point to give Roddick a 1-0 lead.</p><p>Roddick led 4-0 before Stepanek broke the American's powerful serve twice to level the set at 5-5.</p><p>The 27-year-old Roddick injured his left knee in October, and the Australian Open warmup in Brisbane was his first tournament back.</p><p>Roddick's win ended Stepanek's nine-match winning streak at the Brisbane International.</p><p>Roddick won his first career title in Australia in his first final Down Under. He has had a frustrating time at the Australian Open, making the semifinal four times in the past seven years, only to be denied a shot at the title.</p><p>Roddick said he had to "hold on to the last shred of sanity" to win the match.</p><p>"I didn't expect to come in and win my first tournament after a pretty extended layoff," Roddick said. "You could focus on the last 20 minutes of stress or look at the whole week. ... Overall I feel pretty good about it."</p><p>Stepanek was happy with his ability to nearly turn the match around.</p><p>"To come back from 1-5 down (in the second set) against a player such as Andy with a tremendous serve, it was a great battle," Stepanek said.</p><p>"I never gave up. I was fighting until the last point. I said to myself 'you are in Brisbane, you won here last year, there is something special here', but in the end it wasn't good enough."</p><p>The Brisbane women's singles champion was decided Saturday when Kim Clijsters beat fellow Belgian Justine Henin 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (6) in a clash of two players back on tour after temporary retirements.</p><p>Clijsters, only five tournaments into a comeback that has already netted the U.S. Open title, saved two match points and then wasted three before clinching the win over Henin, a seven-time Grand Slam tournament title winner playing her first event back on tour.</p><p>Henin later pulled out of this week's Sydney International with an upper left leg injury, but expects to be fit for the Australian Open which starts on Jan. 18.</p><img src="http://admatch-syndication.mochila.com/images/ad.gif?aid=66661912&bid=informcom" /></div><div id="copyright"><div>

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