Fourth seeded Andy Roddick bounced back from first set down to beat Gilles Muller of Luxembourg 1-6, 7-6(2), 6-2 in the final of Atlanta Tennis Championships on Sunday.

“I know by now the score of a set is irrelevant. Whether it’s 7-6 or 6-1, it still counts the same,” said Roddick. “With most other sports, you get way up in the first quarter and it actually means something in regards to the rest of the game.

He added “In tennis, it’s not really the case too often, with the exception of momentum. You just try to start over and put some holds together. I was able to win the second set and I think he might have gotten a little tired in the third.”

Muller dominated the first set and converted 2 out of 3 break points to take first set lead in the set. The second set was a hard fought affair as no breaks were exchanged and it went till the tie breaker. Roddick capitalised there and pushed the match into a third set.

The American secured two breaks of serve in the deciding set and emerged victorious.

“I played very well in the first two sets. At the end of the second set, I got very tight,” Muller said. “I felt like I was in a position to win that match. I was too nervous to close it and then Andy started to play better. He started to return my serves and put a lot of balls in the court. And I started to miss a lot. Maybe I lost the belief in myself to win that match too quickly.”