Rusedski battles back to win in Auckland

Great Britain's Greg Rusedski was forced to come from behind once more to win the Heneken Open in Auckland on Saturday, beating France's Jerome Golmard 6-7 6-4 7-5 in a match lasting just over two hours.

Rusedski has been taken to three sets in all his matches en route to the final and in the quarter-final against Goran Ivanisevic and the semi-final against Jiri Novak, he lost the first set but came back to triumph.

When play resumed after a rain delay, Golmard held serve to take the first set into a tiebreak which he won without dropping a point.

Rusedski regrouped and broke the Frenchman's serve in the third game of the second set and then held his own to take the match into a decider.

The third set had all the drama of a great final with Rusedski breaking Golmard's serve again in the third game, but dropped his own as he was serving for the match at 5-4.

The Briton remained focussed and recovered the break in the next game and then served for the match at 7-5.

Rusedski is the first British winner of this event since Roger Taylor triumphed here in 1970.