Andy Roddick is not someone who is easily humbled on a grass court, but he had the good grace yesterday to admit he was lucky to win his fourth Artois title.

The world No.5 had to save a match point against Nicolas Mahut, the unseeded Frenchman, to avoid what would have been one of the biggest upsets in the history of the tournament.

Instead, he went one better than his coach, Jimmy Connors, by winning a fourth title at Queen's Club. Connors, as Roddick was quick to point out afterwards, only won three.

Roddick beat Mahut 4-6, 7-6, 7-6 after 2hr 17min in a match which had been widely predicted to be a rout in his favour. Mahut is, after all, ranked No.106 in the world, earns most of his living from playing doubles and had never reached a singles final before.

Roddick intends to spend this week going to rock concerts by night - he cheekily mentioned Neil Sedaka, Linda Ronstadt and Cliff Richard as a swipe at the squares in the press pack, though Pearl Jam and the Smashing Pumpkins are more to his taste - and putting in a little gentle practice ahead of Wimbledon, which starts a week today.

Mahut, meanwhile, is likely to spend this week at the un-prepossessing surroundings of the Bank of England Sports Ground at Roehampton, attempting to qualify for Wimbledon. It is his misfortune that he put on his sudden burst of eye-catching grass-court tennis after all the men's wildcards had already been handed out.

Mahut was expected to roll over and allow the American to stride to victory but, having beaten both Ivan Ljubicic and Rafael Nadal en route to the final, he showed every intention of adding Roddick's name to his big-name scalps.

He broke the Roddick serve at 4-5 in the first set with some nimble movement and sweet touch around the net and overall was, as Roddick admitted afterwards, the better player for most of the match.

Though he can console himself with a slew of ranking points, the match-point he had in the second set tiebreaker may prey on his mind for some time to come.

Roddick's volleys and movement around the net remain among his more conspicuous weaknesses and, at 6-7 down in the tiebreaker, he was to be found flailing around in front of Mahut, hitting volleys with all the control and panache of a man wearing welder's gloves.

With Roddick at his mercy and the easiest of forehand passes waiting to be hit, Mahut missed and, in an instant, relegated his role from champion to entertaining cameo performer.

"Nicolas was consistently outplaying me throughout the match," said Roddick afterwards. "I honestly feel lucky to be standing here in the winner's circle. He had a real good look at that forehand, hit it hard, hit it well, maybe just got a little bit excited and gave me a chance."

Mahut did well to keep the pressure on Roddick in the third set but he never came as near to victory again.

Instead, the American waited for his chance then took the tie-breaker by the throat. When his own match point came, he took it with an ace and grinned at Connors. Mahut had shown both of them just how much work there is still to do in Roddick's game after one of the closest finals Queen's Club has seen recently.

Scotland's Jamie Murray will help get the Nottingham Open under way today when he and his American partner, Eric Butorac, take on Englishman James Auckland and Australia's Stephen Huss in the opening match of the tournament.

Murray's countryman, Jamie Baker, qualified for the main draw of singles in Nottingham thanks to an impressive 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 win over big-serving Australian Chris Guccione in the final round of qualifying yesterday.

The victory over Guccione marked a significant milestone for Baker, who has never quali-fied for an ATP Tour-level tournament before.