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SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Defending champion Andy Murray won his second career title, neutralizing Ivo Karlovic's big serve to win a thrilling SAP Open final 6-7 (3), 6-4, 7-6 (2) on Sunday.
Bodog.com had Murray listed as a -290 favorite to take home the title.
Murray proved to be the only player who had an answer for the difficult serve of the 6-foot-10 Karlovic, who lost his serve only once in 51 games and had a tournament- record 87 aces heading into the final.
Despite Karlovic's 26 aces, Murray did an outstanding job on his return game in the final two sets, forcing Karlovic to hit many more shots that he needed in previous matches.
After losing the first-set tiebreaker and the opening game of the second set on his own serve, Murray rallied back. He broke Karlovic twice in the second set before and got two minibreaks in the tiebreaker - including Karlovic's first double fault of the match at 4-2 - before winning it on a 137 mph ace, his eighth of the day.
Murray, ranked 13th in the world, is off to a fast start in 2007, finishing as runner-up in Doha and making the fourth round of the Australian Open before losing to Rafael Nadal.
Murray feels very comfortable in the Bay Area, having won both his career titles in San Jose and also winning a challenger event in nearby Aptos in 2005. This title was easier than a year ago, when Murray had to save two match points before beating Lleyton Hewitt in a third-set tiebreaker.
Murray became the fourth player to defend his first career title, joining Mario Ancic (Hertogenbosch), Ronald Gasquet (Nottingham) and Paradorn Srichaphan (Long Island).
Karlovic, ranked 103rd in the world, failed in his attempt to win his first career title but served notice that he is recovered from a knee injury that shut him down for much of the second half of last year.
Karlovic beat three seeded players on his way to the final, No. 2 James Blake, No. 5 Mardy Fish and No. 6 Benjamin Becker, serving 113 aces in the tournament. In his only previous final, he lost at Queen's Club to Andy Roddick in 2005.
This had the potential to be a big day in the Murray family. Andy's older brother, Jamie, was in the doubles final with American Eric Butorac against Chris Haggard and Rainer Schuettler. The Murrays were trying to become the first brothers to win the singles and doubles titles at the same event since Emilio and Javier Sanchez at Kitzbuhel in 1989.
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