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World No. 58 Michael Llodra (pictured) rallied from a set down to claim his third career ATP singles title, and his second of 2008, with a 6-7(3), 6-3, 7-6(4) over Swede Robin Soderling on Sunday at the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam.

There were no break points in the first set as Soderling edged it out in a tie-break, but Llodra fought back in the second set, despite surrendering his initial break of serve, to level the match at one set all. Neither player could break through in the final set as it went to a tie-break where the key mini-break went to Llodra as Soderling double faulted at 3-4. The Frenchman went on to close it out with an accurate first serve that Soderling couldn’t return on match point.

"It's the biggest title of my career so far," said Llodra. "It's for sure one of the best matches I've ever played. I came back from one set down. It's really tough to play against a player like him. I tried to stay relaxed and focus on my serve. That's a great win."

In assessing the match, Soderling said: "In a match like this a few points decide everything. Michael played really well on the important points and he deserved to win. I made a few bad mistakes in the two games he broke me and maybe I didn't play my best tennis during those games."

Llodra faced 22 aces from Soderling, and fired 15 of his own, in sealing the victory in 2hrs., 8mins.

Speaking about Soderling, Llodra said: "He was injured last year during six months. He has a great serve and good strokes. I think he can reach a much better ranking."

Llodra now joins British No. 1 Andy Murray as the only other winner of two ATP singles titles thus far in 2008. The 27-year-old Frenchman was playing his fifth career ATP singles final and now improves to a 3-2 record.

The Frenchman claimed his first title of the season in the opening week on hard court in Adelaide (d. Jarkko Nieminen), where he also reached his maiden ATP singles final in 2004 (l. to Hrbaty). His first career title came in 2004 on grass in ‘s-Hertogenbosch (d. No. 3 Guillermo Coria), and he also finished runner-up there a year later (l. to Mario Ancic).

The Paris-born Llodra was 9-3 on the season before Rotterdam, with his best result after the title in Adelaide being a quarterfinal showing in Auckland (l. to Juan Monaco in a third set tie-break). He now improves to 14-3 for the campaign, and has already won more matches than his season total last year (13-18).

In his four matches leading up to the final this week, the left-hander defeated Raemon Sluiter, No. 2 seed Nikolay Davydenko (his third Top 10 win), Robin Haase and Ivo Karlovic. He is now 6-1 in Rotterdam, having reached the second round in 2005.

Llodra's name will now be added to the big winners list in the Ahoy Stadium, an honour he is very pleased about: "It's a great feeling. You know when you get here you see all the famous names like Goran Ivanisevic and Richard Krajicek. All the superstars... When I got here I thought it would be nice to put my name there but it was more like a dream. You have to beat Davydenko, Murray - when you see the draw it's amazing."

"I hope that I'll keep on playing like this. So far it has been going very well for me this year."

World No. 59 Soderling (pictured right) was contesting his sixth career ATP final and now stands at 2-4. His two titles came on indoor carpet, in 2004 Lyon (d. Xavier Malisse) and 2005 Milan (d. Radek Stepanek).

After reaching the quarterfinals (l. to No. 7 Richard Gasquet) in his first event of the season in Marseille last week, the 23-year-old Soderling now stands at 7-1 for the season. The Swede was forced off the circuit for six months after suffering a left wrist injury at AMS Canada last August, which caused his ranking to slip from No. 28 to No. 59 this week, his lowest ranking since April 2006.

"It's been a good week for me," said Soderling. "It's only my second tournament since I'm back on the tour. I'm sure that in a while I'll be happy with what I did here. Overall I played a pretty good match and I could have won it. I think I'm pretty close to where I want to be now. My goal is to get back to where I was before my injury. I want to break into the Top 15 and maybe some day into the Top 10."

Soderling is now 5-1 lifetime in Rotterdam after recording victories over No. 8 seed Marcos Baghdatis, Fernando Verdasco, Andreas Seppi and Gilles Simon en route to the final.

ATP Tournament Profile | Rotterdam TV Schedule

Saturday: Llodra Topples Karlovic, Faces Soderling in Final
Friday: Karlovic Powers into Rotterdam Semifinals
Thursday: Nadal, Ferrer, Davydenko and Berdych All Fall
Wednesday: Murray, Hewitt Fall as Nadal Advances
Tuesday: Soderling Upsets Baghdatis; Mahut Edges Past Robredo
Monday: Russian Qualifier Upsets No. 7 Seed Ferrero