Fourth-seeded David Nalbandian ramped up his Australian Open preparations by defeating Finland's Jarkko Nieminen in a tough Sydney International final, 6-3 6-7 (9/11) 6-2.

The final seemed to moving towards an inevitable Nalbandian victory with the Argentine looking comfortable after taking the first set, but Nieminen dug deep late in the second set to get back into the match.

Nalbandian was serving for the match at 5-4, but was broken to love as Nieminen fired up the crowd with a tremendous underdog effort.

The Finn won the second set 11-9 on the tie-break to set up a decisive final set.

But Nalbandian steadied and broke Nieminen's serve three times in the decider to take his 10th career title in two hours and 16 minutes.

Nalbandian admitted afterwards that winning the event was near-perfect preparation for the Australian Open.

"Winning a tournament before is almost perfect to arrive. So I'm very happy for the week that I had here. I think I played good tennis.

"Today it was a tough match. I feel that I played very good sometimes and sometimes not that good. But it was a very positive week and I feel that I'm going to arrive in Melbourne with a lot of confidence. So that's good."