Thomas Johansson extended German Nicolas Kiefer's search for an elusive seventh career title.

Johansson faced little trouble Sunday as the second-seeded Swede rolled to a 6-4 6-2 victory over the fifth-seeded Kiefer in the final of the St Petersburg Open.

The 30-year-old Johansson had reached the semi-finals in four tournaments this year without breaking through before he overcame eighth seed Fernando Verdasco of Spain, 6-3 3-6 6-3, on Saturday.

The 2002 Australian Open champion, Johansson was not about to squander an opportunity for his ninth career title as he dropped only six games en route to his first championship since winning at Stockholm in 2004.

"This is my best year, even if I won the Australian Open in 2002," Johansson said.

"This is my most solid year, I reached a couple of semi-finals and finally I've also won a title."

Meanwhile, the setback marked the ninth straight loss in a final for Kiefer, who last won a title at Hong Kong in 2000.

Despite the miserable streak, Kiefer must have felt confident about his chances on Sunday as he was coming off a pair of impressive straight-sets victories.

He needed only 55 minutes Friday to post a shocking 6-1 6-1 triumph over top-seeded Nikolay Davydenko of Russia in the quarter-finals, then recorded a 6-3 6-4 victory over unseeded Czech Robin Vik on Saturday to advance to his 18th career championship match.

"I'm very disappointed," Kiefer said. "I never really got into the match today. I was playing well almost during the whole week, but unfortunately this was not the case in the final. I made too many mistakes and I never really got close, although I had many break points."

But the 28-year-old Kiefer was no match for Johansson, who controlled the play throughout en route to securing the first prize and joining Russia's Marat Safin as the only two-time champions here.

Johansson captured his second career title when he won here in 1997.

"If you can come back and win a tournament twice, it's always great and it becomes definitely one of your favorite tournaments," Johansson said.

"I did the same in Stockholm and it feels great. I really enjoy playing here and of course I'll come back."

After capturing a break at 3-3 in the first set, Johansson fought off a break chance on his next service game before converting on his first set point.

He then jumped out to a 4-1 lead in the second before finishing the match with one of his 10 aces.

Overall, the Swede saved eight break chances.

"Since this is a very quick surface, you can come back even if you're 0-40 down in a game," Johansson said. "You can do a lot with good serves."

Since dropping his first two career matches against Kiefer, Johansson has rebounded to get the better of the German in four of the last five meetings.