Healed Stepanek overcomes odds, beats Blake in LA

The quiet Czech, engaged to women's star Martina Hingis, produced a fighting 7-6 (9-7), 5-7, 6-2 win over second seed James Blake in a two-hour, 20-minute marathon that ended on a break from a backhand pass down the line.

 "For me to win this tournament is a very good feeling," said Stepanek, who received a semi-final walkover Saturday when German Nicolas Kiefer was unable to start due to knee pain. "I'm just so happy."

   The win improves the number 101, had reached the top 10 little more than a year ago before being struck with a neck problem, to 2-4 in career finals.

 "I just couldn't come up with the right shots at the right time today," said Blake. "He came up with great shots in that tiebreaker to save set points and served well in the third set."

   Stepanek lifted his only previous trophy indoors in February 2006 at Rotterdam.

 Five months later, he was out of the game and making the rounds of doctors in Prague to get a diagnosis of a sudden neck pain, which had left him with little feeling in his right hitting arm.

 "In 12 days, I lost all of the muscle tone in my arm. I finally went to my doctor who discovered that I had dislocated a disk in my neck, which was putting pressure on the nerve leading to my arm," he explained.

 "Five of six doctors wanted to operate, but my doctors told me to hold off for a few months. If I could feel even some small improvement that would mean that the nerves were healing."

   The journeyman spent the last half of the year off the ATP and forced to wait and hope that the nerves would grow back.

 When the situation began to improve, he was able to start light training in December, shortly after quietly proposing to fellow Czech Hingis, a childhood friend.

 Stepanek claimed the title honour by dropping only one set this week during the marathon final against the American favourite, who has gone dry since winning Sydney in the first week of the year.

 In 2007, number nine Blake exploded for six trophies.

 "A lot of people would look at this as a loss to someone I should have beaten," said Blake. "But I was playing well, and these guys are really fighting to beat me. They're hungry to beat the second seed. I fought pretty hard and did a good job of handling their advances.

 Stepanek's win was his 12th against a top 10 player against 22 losses.

 The winner saved six of the eight break points he faced, with each man pounding eight aces on the cement at UCLA.

 Blake accepted the loss to the stoic and relatively undemonstrative Stepanek with good grace.

 "I couldn't tell if he was actually too happy to win this," Blake said. "Though I'm far from home, it feels like I'm in my living room when the crowd cheers for me like this."

   Blake came to the court with a 3-1 lead in the series. dpa