Roddick powers past Berdych to clinch title

Roddick hammered down 13 aces as he eased to a 7-5, 6-4 victory over Tomas Berdych in one hour and 43 minutes. The sixth seed did not face a single break point on his serve as he claimed his 29th career title and second in Miami.

Roddick had produced one of the finest performances of his career on Friday to rally from a set down to beat Rafael Nadal in the semi-finals. And the former US Open champion carried that momentum with him into yesterday to make amends for losing the Indian Wells final a fortnight ago to Ivan Ljubicic.

Berdych had beaten Roger Federer in the fourth round after saving a match point and disposed of French Open finalist Robin Soderling in the semis, but never threatened to cause another upset.

The 16th seed stuck with Roddick until the 11th game of the opening set before a costly double fault and poor forehand gifted Roddick the break of serve.

The American served out for the set and immediately broke again in the opening game of the next, forcing another forehand error from Berdych.

The writing was on the wall but Berdych at least dug deep to stay in the match when serving at 5-3 down, saving two match points, the first of them after the longest rally of the match.

However, Roddick was not to be denied and the 27-year-old served out for the match.

Roddick said: "It's great. I won my first ever match here and it's nice to see it come full circle and I couldn't be happier."

Kim Clijsters, meanwhile, showed no mercy to a struggling Venus Williams as she won the women's final on Saturday.

Clijsters, the 14th seed, triumphed 6-2, 6-1 in 58 minutes as third seed Williams was clearly troubled by her heavily strapped left knee in the Florida sunshine.

Clijsters claimed an early break in the third game of the first set to move into the ascendancy and Williams had brief treatment on her heavily strapped left knee and right thigh. Her mobility was certainly impaired as Clijsters swiftly went 3-1 ahead by holding her own serve.

The 26-year-old then broke Williams for a three-game advantage. The next two games went with serve before Clijsters served out the opening set.

Williams' wayward serving continued in the second set as she found herself broken again in the first and third games and fell 4-0 behind. Williams rallied late on, winning her third service game of the second set, but the match had already been lost.

Clijsters served to within one game of victory, which duly came when she broke Williams to love in the final game.