Greg Rusedski showed he still has the heart for a battle after defending a title for the first time in his career at the Hall of Fame Championships in Newport, Rhode Island.

A 7-6 (7-3) 2-6 6-4 victory over second seed Vince Spadea gave the 31-year-old his first title since winning the same event last year but it could quite easily have been a different story for the British number two.

The third seed was broken in the final set by his American opponent before breaking back to level at 4-4, holding his own serve and breaking again to close out a hard-fought victory.

"I'm just really happy," said Rusedski. "It's the first time in my career I've ever defended a title, I'm just really pleased about that.

"I was serving so well the first set and Vince played well from the back of the court.

"It got a little bit windy and I lost a little bit of rhythm. I had two double faults to lose the service game, which I think gave him confidence."

Despite falling behind in the decider, Rusedski never gave up hope of claiming his 15th career title - his third in four appearances at Newport, where he won his first-ever title in 1993.

"When he broke me, I just had a feeling I could still get back in the match. I went for it a little more and things just worked out for me," he added.

"When I was down a break (in the third), I wasn't feeling too good, but I looked over at Vinny, and I still felt like I was in there.

"I started hitting my returns and he was giving me a lot of second serves. He hit four second serves that game, and I hit four pretty good forehands."

The 30-year-old Spadea was bitterly disappointed to miss out on what would have been only the second title of his career as Rusedski upped his game at just the right time.

"I wish I would have won," said the current world number 57, whose only previous title came at Scottsdale last year.

"I just didn't play great. He stepped up his game and I was a little tentative."

The pair were both playing in their first final of the year and made it the first final between two players aged 30 or over on the ATP Tour since a 32-year-old Andre Agassi defeated 30-year-old Davide Sanguinetti at San Jose in 2003.