Hewitt claims Vegas title

The former world number one, who has slipped to 20th in the rankings, lifted his 26th career title and first since the Stella Artois tournament at London's Queen's Club last June by beating Austrian Jurgen Melzer 6-4 7-6 in the final.

Hewitt has now won at least one tournament in each of his 10 years as a professional.

The Australian, who had missed the previous two weeks with a hamstring injury, said his confidence was growing.

"It's always nice to win," he said. "I've been so used to it in the past, winning tournaments, especially early in the year.

"In the past, I've been able to win in Adelaide or Sydney or Scottsdale, and it's a good feeling before three majors coming up this year.

"To win another title earlier in the year just gives you that much more confidence for the rest of the year."

Hewitt said he had surprised himself by winning the title so soon after his injury.

"Not to re-injure my hamstring was the biggest question mark for me coming in to the week. As the week went on I got more and more confident that that wasn't going to happen."

Hewitt now moves on to back-to-back Masters Series events in California and Florida. Having sustained an injury in Miami last year, he has the opportunity to get back into the top 10 by the French Open.

"I am not putting a date on it," he said. "I'll just see how things pan out. This week's been great and I haven't got too many points to defend between now and the French Open and Queen's, so this is a time when you have to step it up.

"Apart from these next two hardcourt tournaments I am really looking forward to the claycourt tournaments this year.

"I feel like my last few claycourt matches have been good against tough players.

"At the French Open, if you look at the guys I have lost to, there probably hasn't been one average player.

"They've all been exceptional players so that gives me a lot of confidence in itself and to have wins against people like (Albert) Costa and (David) Nalbandian and (Olivier) Rochus now, gives me a lot more confidence."