Taylor Dent captured his second career ATP title with a 6-1, 6-4 victory over defending champion Andy Roddick in the final of the Kroger St. Jude in Memphis.

Dent, who won the Newport title in 2002 in his only previous appearance in an ATP final, took exactly 1 hour to overcome Roddick in what was their first meeting on the ATP circuit.

"The title last year [in Newport] was special because I like playing grass court tennis and beating James [Blake] in the final was great," said Dent. "But today was especially nice. I beat a Top 5 player in the world and really played well, so I have to do that from week to week. That first set was a joke. If I could do that every match, it would be something special. My returns were working very well and I backed that up with some great volleys and great second serves again."

History

Dent, who made history in Newport last year by becoming the first father (Phil) and son duo to win an ATP title in the Open Era (since 1968), said: "I will give my dad a call from the airport and see what he thinks and if he saw it. I'll give him the run down and tell him that I played some solid stuff."

Dent broke Roddick's serve in the fourth and sixth games of the first set and the third game of the second, and faced only three break points in the match (at 4-3, 0-40 in the second set). But three good points - including an incredible half-volley after a good return from Roddick on the third - saved the day. He then closed out the match with a 125 mph ace, his 11th of the match and his 59th for the week.

The 21-year-old from Newport Beach, California only dropped his serve twice during the tournament, the last of which came in the seventh game of his quarterfinal match against Vladimir Voltchkov. He has now gone 24 consecutive service games without being broken.

"I got down 0-40 [leading 4-3 in the second set] in a hurry so I just took my time and tried to get just one point at least," said Dent. "I think that game saved me the match because he's such a tough competitor and anything can happen."

Pizza

Dent had not won a match this year before arriving in Memphis (0-3), losing in the first round of the Waikoloa Challenger (l. to Robert Kendrick in third set tie-break), the fifth rubber of the US Davis Cup tie against Croatia (l. to Ljubicic in third set tie-break) and in the first round in San Jose (l. to Hyung-Taik Lee). He also was 0-4 in tie-breaks this year before the tournament, but won all four tie-breaks against Philippoussis (including 17-15 in the first set, the longest of the year so far), No. 5 seed Jan-Michael Gambill (two) and Voltchkov.

"I think the fitness work with [my coach] Brad Stine has really paid off this week," added Dent. "My movement around the court has been 10 times better than it has been in the past and that's unbelievable. We've been doing cardio work on the bike, which is an absolute nightmare. My reward if I won the tournament was to have a day off from the gym - and to have pizza. I haven't had pizza since Newport probably. I'm having everything on it - except anchovies."

Outplayed

Roddick was appearing in his eighth career final (5-3) and now has a 10-2 record in Memphis. He reached his second consecutive Memphis final - and his first on the ATP circuit since the Tennis Masters Toronto last year - with wins over Cecil Mamiit, Hyung-Taik Lee (saved three match points), Robby Ginepri and Brian Vahaly.

"What didn't he do well today?" asked Roddick. "I hit a second serve at 129 mph he chipped and charged off of it. He hasn't broken into the Top 20 yet but it's coming. I think he should definitely be up there. He just played well from the first point to the last. I didn't play great by any means but he didn't give me a chance to work my way into it. I hadn't played well all week. I was waiting for someone to step up and he did that today. He just outplayed me."

On the three break points he had in the second set, he added: "I made three returns, which is more than I had done all day. On the third one, I hit a great return and he put the ball on the last eighth of the line. I thought I'd get a good look at a pass on that one, but he obviously thought otherwise. Sometimes after injuries you lose your first match back, so it was good to get to the final."

It was the seventh all-American Memphis final, and the second in as many years after Roddick defeated James Blake in last year's final. It also was the 17th all-American final since 1997 and only the fifth that did not include either Andre Agassi or Pete Sampras.

The semifinal lineup of Dent vs. Spadea and Roddick vs. Vahaly were the first all-American semifinals on the ATP circuit since 1995 San Jose (Andre Agassi, Michael Chang, Jim Courier and MaliVai Washington) and the first anywhere on the circuit since 1997 Umag when Spain had all four semifinalists (Sergi Bruguera, Alberto Martin, Felix Mantilla, Carlos Moya).