Andy Roddick held off a fierce challenge from Israeli underdog Dudi Sela to win the China Open final on Sunday to take his third ATP title of the year.

Big-serving Roddick, the second seed at the 524,000-dollar Beijing tournament, overcame 92-ranked Sela, playing in his first ATP final, 6-4, 6-7 (6/8), 6-3.

Pushed throughout by his unfancied opponent, Roddick served for the match at 6-4 in the second set tie-break but Sela played a gentle pick-up shot at the net to take the point, recovering to win 8-6.

In the third and deciding set, Sela, who showed a willingness to come in throughout the match, continued to impress with the range of his shot-making, but could not force the break from Roddick.

Instead it was the world number eight who made the crucial breakthrough in the sixth game and despite further scares, he took the set 6-3 in a match lasting just over two hours.

"I think he was definitely playing well this week and I thought he played well today also," Roddick said of Sela, who earlier in the tournament put out top seed David Ferrer and Tommy Robredo.

The American said he was aware that the gulf in experience between the players - he has played in dozens of ATP finals but Sela was playing in his first - would likely count in his favour.

"I wanted to at least stay in there and compete even though he was the hot player for the majority of the day," he added.

"At the end of the day, a win is a win and I'm happy with that," Roddick said.

Earlier, both players had started the match strongly, with neither conceding a point on serve until the fourth game, but Roddick forced a break in the following game.

Sela fended off three set points on his own serve at 5-3 down but Roddick, who won 100 percent of his first serves in the opener, made no mistake on his own serve.

In the second set the American broke Sela to go 3-2 up but amid roars of encouragement from the crowd, Sela broke back immediately, taking advantage of some erratic volleying by the American.

"I think I played well. I was very nervous in the beginning of the match and didn't read his serve at all but as long as the match continued I saw a little bit more where he was serving," Sela said.

The Israeli said his run to the final had given him a major confidence boost, adding: "I've shown myself that I can play with these big players and hopefully it will continue like that."

In the women's final later on Sunday, top seed and 2007 runner-up Jelena Jankovic will take on Russia's Svetlana Kuznetsova, playing her third China Open final.

Fourth seed Kuznetsova, who won the title in 2006 and finished runner-up in 2004, leads Jankovic 4-2 in head-to-heads.

If Jankovic wins the 600,000-dollar women's tournament, she will move to within a handful of points of world number one Serena Williams.

AFP