In the final of the Campionati Internazionali Di Sicilia tennis tournament, Italy's Filippo Volandri finally broke through.

A loser in the last two finals here, Volandri rallied for a 5-7 6-1 6-3 victory Sunday over upset-minded Nicolas Lapentti of Ecuador.

The second-seeded Volandri needed three sets for the third time this week and overcame a poor first serve to get past Lapentti, who also struggled with his service game.

"I wanted this win so much," said Volandri, who claimed his second career title and won $55,767. "This was my third final in a row here and maybe one of the last occasions to win this tournament."

Nursing a cold, Volandri appeared headed for another disappointing loss after dropping the first set to Lapentti, who was looking for his third straight win over a seeded foe in this $413,388 claycourt tournament.

"I was very nervous at the beginning, trying to find my game," Volandri said.

Volandri never located his serve as he won just 53% of his first-service points. But he took advantage of Lapentti's struggles, winning eight of 14 of his foe's service games.

"It was a difficult match and it was very hard to lose the first set with the heat and everything today," Volandri said.

"But I wanted to win so badly and this gave me the strength to come back, even after I lost the first set."

This was the third final of the season for Volandri, who improved to 2-6 all-time in championship matches. He lost here to Tomas Berdych in 2004 and Igor Andreev last year.

Lapentti fell to 1-1 all-time vs. Volandri, with both matches on clay. He was denied his sixth career title and first since 2002 in St Polten.

Besides losing today, I'm happy with my performance during this week and also during last week," said Lapentti, who won a Challenger title in Poland a week ago.

"Nobody expected me to suddenly come back like this."