Milos Raonic of Canada holds up his trophy after he defeated Fernando Verdasco, of Spain in the final of the SAP Open Tennis Tournament in San Jose Sunday. (AP) SAN JOSE, California: Canada's Milos Raonic upset top seeded Fernando Verdasco 7-6 (8-6), 7-6 (7/5) in the final of the SAP Open, becoming the first Canuck to win an ATP Tour title in 16 years. The 20-year-old needed two tiebreakers to secure victory in his first crack at a Tour final. He is also the youngest winner on the Tour since 19-year-old Marin Cilic won three years ago at New Haven. “It's been quite a month and a half, but an amazing month and a half,” he said. “I just hope to keep this going.” Greg Rusedski was the last Canadian to win on the ATP Tour when he came through in Seoul, South Korea in 1995. Rusedski was born in Canada but he angered Canadians by moving overseas, taking British citizenship in 1995 and then opting to play for Britain internationally. The hard-serving Raonic said he felt comfortable Sunday playing indoors in a converted hockey arena where the National Hockey League's San Jose Sharks play their home games. Raonic won $92,000 in prize money and a Sharks' hockey sweater. Like most Canadian youngsters, he grew up playing hockey. “It's nice to know a hockey arena isn't new to me,” Raonic said. “I've been in a few of these. This feels like home.” Raonic fought off four set points in the first-set tiebreaker and then took advantage of the only minibreak in the second-set tiebreaker to seal the victory. Verdasco fended off two match points on his serve in the second set but ultimately had no answer for the Raonic. On the final point of the match Raonic smashed a 229 kph serve that Verdasco pushed into the net. Defending champion Verdasco was hoping to become the seventh player to repeat victories at this tournament and first since Britain's Andy Murray in 2006-07. Raonic has rocketed up the ATP rankings this year going from 156 in the world at the end of last year to 59th following Sunday's win. – Agence France
