James Blake safely can say he is the top American tennis player now.

The top seed, Blake claimed his third title of 2006 and sixth career with a 4-6 6-4 7-6 (7-5) triumph over Davis Cup teammate and second seed Andy Roddick in the final of the RCA Championship on Sunday.

Blake, 26, had lost their first six career meetings before posting a 7-5 6-4 win in the semi-finals at Queen's Club, a Wimbledon warmup tournament, last month.

Already the champion at Sydney and Las Vegas this year, Blake entered this 575,000 hardcourt event a career-best sixth in the world rankings, while Roddick slipped from third at the start of the season to 11th.

The 2003 US Open champion and a two-time winner here, Roddick was hoping to kick-start his campaign with a victory here, but he could not quite accomplish the feat.

After splitting the first two sets, the 23-year-old earned five break points in the third, but he could not convert any of them, and he lost the decisive tiebreak by sending a backhand long.

A winner of 20 career titles, Roddick was playing in his first final of the year.

He had reached just two semi-finals in 2006 before this week.