Tommy Haas claimed the Countrywide Classic title in Los Angeles after seeing off hard-hitting Russian Dmitry Tursunov in three sets.

The sixth seed and 2004 champion from Germany, Haas overcame a determined effort from Tursunov to clinch a 4-6 7-5 6-3 win in steamy conditions at the UCLA Tennis Center.

"It's always an awesome feeling to hold up the trophy at the end of a week,''

Haas said. ``I'm really pleased doing it.''

Haas claimed his 10th career title and third of 2006 by beating the eighth-seeded Russian, who was playing in his first career ATP Tour championship

match.

"Dmitry has one of the most powerful games,'' said Haas.

"He serves big, he has a huge forehand, he moves quick and we both pull off shots. If he starts making them more than missing them, he's going to get to the top quite quickly.

"I'm sure this is not the last time he will get to a final and it's not going

to take much longer before he wins one.''

Haas, 28, played sparkling tennis the entire week, dropping just one set en route to reaching the final.

He recorded wins over Australian Wayne Arthurs, Chilean Paul Capdeville, American Paul Goldstein and seventh-seeded Slovakian Dominik Hrbaty.

However, 23-year-old Tursunov offered stiffer competition than the others.

Utilising punishing ground strokes, Tursunov made a lone service break in the fifth game stand up in the first set.

Haas continued to battle, however.

He erased two break points in the third game of the second set, then capitalised on a second break point in the 12th game to level the match when Tursunov smacked a forehand into the net.

"When I broke him to win the second set, that was the key moment for me to win the match,'' said Haas, who moved up four spots to 17th in the world rankings.

"I was lucky it didn't go into a second set tie-breaker, because you never know what can happen from there.''

After taking the middle set, Haas began to pick up steam, racing to a 4-1 lead with a service break in the second game.

Though unable to capitalise on additional break chances, Haas maintained his early advantage and ended the encounter in two hours, three minutes with a service winner.

"After I won the second set I felt I had the momentum going into the third set and I jumped on him,'' Haas said.

"Maybe he was going for a little bit more thinking about how close he was to winning his first title in his first final. I was just trying to hold my serve, and wait for the opportunities, which is what I did.

Afterwards, Tursunov downplayed the stress of his milestone match.

"It didn't feel any different than yesterday,'' said Tursunov, who upset third-seeded Fernando Gonzalez of Chile in the semi-finals Saturday.

"The key is to just come out and treat it as another match, try to play it as a first-round match.

"If you kind of tell yourself it's a final, and if I win I get more prize money or I get more phone numbers, then you're going to come out and be more shaky. But in reality it's not anything different than a first-round match.''

With the impressive showing, Tursunov will move up four spots in the rankings from 33rd to a career-best 29th.