Scottish teenager Andy Murray battled back to beat unseeded Ivo Karlovic 6-7, 6-4, 7-6 to win the San Jose Open title for the second successive year.
Karlovic hit 26 aces to take his tally for the week to 113 and looked set for victory when he led by a set and a break but third seed Murray fought back superbly to win his second career title.
"I'd like to thank Brad (Gilbert, his coach) and Mark Grabow, my fitness trainer," the 19-year-old said.
"We have done a lot of work in seven months, and it hasn't always been fun, but I've been in two finals now this year so it's going well."
Just 10 points went against serve as the first set headed to a tiebreak but it was Karlovic who took it 7-3 before breaking serve in the opening game of the second set.
But Murray broke back immediately and then again in the 10th game to force a decider, before taking the tiebreak 7-2 to become only the fourth active player on the ATP Tour to successfully defend their first tour title.
Where James Blake, Mardy Fish and Benjamin Becker failed, Murray succeeded as he coped well with the Karlovic serve, making the six-feet-10 Croat play a series of low volleys.
But after creating a break point chance at 2-2, Murray netted a relatively simple backhand and Karlovic held on to force a tiebreak.
The world number 103 Croat then snatched an early mini-break in the tiebreak - on a disputed call on the baseline - and played three perfect points to take the advantage.
When he broke Murray in the opening game of the second set, the match looked as good as over, but the Scot hit back by levelling and breaking again in game 10 to take it to a third set.
The decider was nip and tuck all the way with Karlovic forcing a break point at 5-5, which Murray saved with an ace, and then the third seed having a match point in the next game only for Karlovic to save it with a volley at full stretch.
A brilliant lob from Murray set up the first mini-break in the tiebreak and Karlovic's first double fault handed the Scot a 5-2 lead before he finished it off with his eighth ace.
