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The top seed and world no. 7 Tomas Berdych pulled the trigger at the right time to pocket the 2012 Open Sud de France title at Montpellier, defeating home favourite Gael Monfils 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 in a little more than two hours in the final.

Berdych had entered the final with a 7-1 record for the year with his only loss coming in the Australian Open quarter-final against world no.2 Rafael Nadal. And he started off like a man on a mission, breaking the 2010 champion Monfils in his very first service game of the opening set. Third seed Monfils, who had comeback from a match point down in his semi-final against countryman Gilles Simon, looked a bit out of sorts and Berdych was all over his second serve, winning 10 out of 11 points. The Czech closed out the set 6-2 by breaking the Frenchman again in the eighth game.

The second set saw the world no. 13 Monfils turn the tables on the 2010 Wimbledon finalist, winning 63 percent of the points on the Czech's second serve and saving three breakpoints on his own serve. The decisive break came in the fifth game of the set on Berdych's serve and after consolidating the break, Monfils managed to hold on to the lead and eventually took the 6-4.

It boiled down to a battle of nerves in the final set as both players sensed a golden opportunity to add to their trophy collection. And it was the 26 year old Berdych who hit the right notes, not facing a single break point on his serve in the set and breaking Monfils' resistance in the crucial eighth game (Monfils came up with his sixth double-fault on break point) to take a 5-3 lead and more importantly, an opportunity to serve for the title. The world no.7 made no mistake and closed out the match with an ace down the centre to win his seventh ATP Tour title.

Berdych was rewarded with the winner's cheque of 91,900 Euro and 250 ATP ranking points. The losing finalist Monfils collected 150 ATP Ranking points and took home a cheque of 37,860 Euro.

This was the talented Czech's seventh title and his first indoors since winning the 2005 Paris Masters. As for Monfils, his poor record in ATP Tour finals continued as this was his 13th loss in 17 finals.

Next stop for the players on the ATP Calendar is the 39th ABN Amro world tennis tournament in Rotterdam commencing on 13th February.

Final Result:

(1) Tomas Berdych (CZE)   d (3) Gael Monfils (FRA) 6-2 4-6 6-3