Jarkko Nieminen admitted he could hardly describe the feeling after overcoming Mario Ancic to claim his first ATP singles title.

The Finn attacked from the outset to overpower his Croatian opponent in little more than an hour in the Heineken Open final in Auckland.

The 24-year-old quickly made up for lost time after an initial rain delay to win comfortably 6-2 6-2.

"It's difficult to put it in words, it just feels so great," said Nieminen. "Sometimes I have felt that my game is good enough to win the title but I have never done it before.

"It's a first for me and my country and it's a really big thing."

Nieminen said he was expecting a tougher contest from the pre-tournament favourite.

"All the time I expected Mario to come back better than he did," he said. "I noticed if I moved him around he was making some unforced errors."

Nieminen took the upper hand early in the clash when he broke his opponent's second service game.

Ancic could do little but watch as the Finn sealed the opening set.

"It was tough to get a rhythm and I was making a lot of errors," said Ancic.

The second set began in much the same fashion as Nieminen soon edged into control again.

Ancic had an opportunity to break his opponent's serve in the fourth game of the set but it was not to be, Nieminen soon bouncing back to take the break in the very next game.

This proved all the leverage he needed as he capitalised on a service break to finish off the match.