Andy Roddick squeezed past Britain's Tim Henman 7-5, 7-6 at the Masters Cup on Tuesday, giving his fellow Texans the hometown win they came to see.
A packed house at the Westside Tennis Club waited patiently during a rain delay lasting one hour 50 minutes and Roddick, who recently moved from Florida to nearby Austin, rewarded them with a high-quality victory in the Blue Group round-robin section.
The oldest player in the elite eight-man field, and the only one without a title this season, Henman might have been viewed as easy prey for the world number two, who arrived here with an ATP Tour-best 71 wins this season.
But Henman's serve and volley game has always proved a problem for Roddick, who has lost three of four career meetings with the 30-year-old Briton.
"He's always played pretty well against me," Roddick told reporters. "But I felt like I competed well and was able to win the big points when I had to."
Delighted to be back in the season finale for the first time since 1998, and playing the best hardcourt tennis of his career, Henman was not about to waste his opportunity and provided Roddick with the stern test he expected.
Roddick had only one break chance in the entire match and made the most of it, crunching a service return winner past Henman to clinch the opening set.
The second was equally tight, Henman spurning the only two break opportunities, sending the set to a tiebreak.
Henman looked poised to take the match into a third set when he rocketed into a 5-2 lead. Roddick, though, reeled off six of the next seven points to snatch the tiebreak 8-6.
"I've had some good wins over Andy but tonight it was his turn," said Henman.
POPULAR RODDICK
"I knew playing Andy in this environment was going to be difficult, it was kind of like home-court advantage to him. Andy is so popular here."
Earlier, Australia's Lleyton Hewitt and Russia's Marat Safin registered wins over players returning to action after long injury layoffs.
A fired-up Hewitt underlined his determination to end the season with a third Masters Cup crown when he rallied past Spain's Carlos Moya 6-7, 6-2, 6-4 in the Red Group while Safin crushed Argentine Guillermo Coria 6-1, 6-4 in the Blue Group.
The winner of two Masters events (Paris and Madrid) in the last three weeks, the mercurial Safin was the form player coming into the $4.45 million season-finale and the big Russian confirmed his status by brushing past Coria in 60 minutes.
Before arriving in Houston, a grumpy Safin complained about having to play outdoors after having spent the last two months on the indoor circuit.
But if the Russian was unhappy about the conditions it did not show in his play as he easily dismissed Coria, who was playing his first match since July after undergoing shoulder surgery.
"It's really important to start well," said Safin. "The first match is the most important one, the most difficult one."
The day began under gloomy skies with Hewitt returning to the Westside Tennis Club looking to close out his rain-delayed match in quick fashion.
Leading 5-4, 0-30 and needing two points to take the opening set, Hewitt's play was as dreary as the Texas weather, allowing Moya to claw back to claim the set in a tiebreak 7-5.
However, Moya, nursing a shoulder injury that prevented him competing on the European indoor circuit, could not stay with the energetic Australian, who was soon back at his fist-pumping best.
More from rediff