By Erik Gudris                           Photo Credit: AP Photo

(February 26th, 2012) Perhaps Jurgen Melzer got his lucky break this week.

Melzer's break came in the form of a broken toe he suffered in his hotel room prior to the start of action at the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships in Memphis, Tennessee. Despite the agony of his injury, it didn't stop the former top 20 player from upsetting No.1 seed John Isner en route to meeting No. 3 seed Milos Raonic in today's finals. Even though Melzer went in as an underdog, the fact that Melzer had returned serve well all week was a good sign for his chances against the Canadian star who had not dropped a set during the event.

As expected, Raonic served big in the first set as he bombed down 11 aces and won 94% of his first serve points. But Melzer served well himself and stayed right with Raonic. When it looked like a tiebreak was inevitable, it was the Austrian who had the first sniff at a break point on Raonic's serve at 5-6 which Melzer converted to claim the set 7-5.

Raonic bounced back in the second set by hitting a passing shot winner to break Melzer to eventually go up 4-1. But Melzer's ability to keep returning Raonic's first serve back on a consistent basis allowed him to stay in touch with Raonic while Raonic seemed unable to put pressure on Melzer's serve when he needed to.

A netted forehand from Raonic allowed Melzer to break back for 3-4. Raonic had an opportunity to break for the set when Melzer doubled faulted serving at 4-5, 30-all. But after Melzer won a nervy rally from both men to level the game to deuce and then eventually hold serve for 5-5, it felt like the second set was now Melzer's to win even if it went into a tiebreak.

When the tiebreak started, both men held serve early on, but once again Melzer's ability to keep getting serves back in play was the deciding factor as Raonic netted another forehand to give Melzer the mini-break at 4-3. That was all Melzer needed to keep out in front in the tiebreak which he won on his first match point when another Raonic groundstroke hit the net giving Melzer a 7-5, 7-6 victory for his fourth career ATP title.

Melzer thanked his physio in attendance for getting him through a difficult 2011 season that had Melzer dealing with major back issues. Melzer will return to the top 25 as will Raonic, who despite the loss today, will climb to a new career high ranking on Monday.