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Sixth-seeded American Sam Querrey made it third time lucky, claiming the LA Tennis Open title Sunday with a 6-4, 3-6, 6-1 victory over Australian qualifier Carsten Ball in his third successive final on the ATP World Tour.

Querrey, who had come up just short of the Newport and Indianapolis titles in July, collected $100,000 and 250 South African Airways 2009 ATP Rankings points as the winner of his hometown ATP World Tour 250 hard-court tournament. He also assumed the lead in the Olympus US Open Series Bonus Challenge standings with 115 points over the first two weeks of the North American summer hard-court circuit, overtaking Indianapolis champion Robby Ginepri (70 points).

It was Querrey's second hard-court title in his fifth ATP World Tour final, having won the Las Vegas title in his maiden championship in March 2008 (d. Anderson). The final, featuring Santa Monica resident Querrey and Newport Beach resident Ball, was the first all-Southern Californian title match since 1984 when Jimmy Connors defeated Eliot Teltscher.

After trading breaks of serve early in the opening set, Querrey broke to go up 5-4 and forced Ball to concede a set for the first time in the qualifier's eight matches this past week at the LA Tennis Open. Ball levelled the contest as he won the final two games of the second set, but he would be limited to just one game the remainder of the match.

Querrey capitalised on two of his four break point chances in the final set and dropped just three points on serve to secure the win in one hour and 28 minutes. In doing so, he became the 16th different American in the Open Era to win the Los Angeles title and the first since Andre Agassi won his fourth event title in 2005.

By defeating top seed and two-time Los Angeles champion Tommy Haas on Saturday, Querrey had become the first American to reach at least three ATP World Tour finals in a row since Andy Roddick advanced to four straight from 7 June - 1 August, 2004. Roddick won Queen's and Indianapolis and finished runner-up at Wimbledon and Toronto.

The 21 year old, who opened his 2009 campaign with a runner-up effort in Auckland (l. to del Potro), joined the world's top four as players to have reached at least four ATP World Tour finals this season. World No. 2 Rafael Nadal and No. 4 Novak Djokovic have each played in six finals, No. 3 Andy Murray in five and No. 1 Roger Federer in four.

Together with his runner-up showings at the grass-court event in Newport on July 12 (l. to Ram) and hard-court stop in Indianapolis last Sunday, Querrey has compiled a 13-2 record over the past month. With a 32-18 season record, he has already surpassed last year's mark of 28 match wins. He entered the Los Angeles tournament ranked a career-high No. 32, and is projected to move to No. 29 in the South African Airways 2009 ATP Rankings with Sunday's victory.

Speaking after claiming the crown Querrey said, "It feels great. I didn't want to lose three finals in a row there. I was a little worried after that second set, but I came back strong in the third."

"He started to get a good read on my second serve and was hitting a fair amount of winners and putting a lot of pressure on me. Right before the third set I sat down, collected myself, and then had a high first serve percentage that was significantly higher than the second set and that was key. I was really mad I had lost two finals previously and didn't want to lose a third one. I was mad at myself, but I kept it together."

Ball, 22, was the fifth qualifier to reach an ATP World Tour final this season and the first in the tournament's Open Era history (since 1968). The lefty was attempting to become the lowest-ranked winner at No. 205 on the ATP World Tour this season, and the first Australian champion in Los Angeles since Rod Laver in 1970.

He and his father Syd became the fourth father-son duo to reach an ATP World Tour final, joining Fred and Sandon Stolle, Phil and Taylor Dent, and Vijay and Prakash Amritraj. Syd Ball was a finalist in 1974 at Surbiton.

Top-seeded Americans Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan won their fifth title at the LA Tennis Open and their fifth of the 2009 season as they defeated Germans Benjamin Becker and Frank Moser 6-4, 7-6(2) on Sunday at the hard-court ATP World Tour 250 tennis tournament in Los Angeles.

The No. 2 duo in the ATP Doubles Team Rankings snapped their longest title drought in more than six years as they claimed their first ATP World Tour title since April in Houston. Coming into Los Angeles, they had played in eight tournaments without a title - the most since an 11-tournament title-less stretch from 2002 (last tournament) through 2003 (first 10).

Final Scores:

[6] Sam Querrey (USA) d [Q] Carsten Ball (AUS) 64 36 61
[1] Bob Bryan (USA) / Mike Bryan (USA) d Benjamin Becker (GER) / Frank Moser (GER) 64 76(2)

FIle Photograph Copyright: Revanta Banerji