ROTTERDAM, Netherlands: Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland beat defending champion Tomas Berdych for the sixth straight time, winning 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 on Sunday to clinch the World Tennis Tournament for his ninth career title.

The fourth-seeded Wawrinka, who beat the Czech in the semifinals on the way to winning last year’s Australian Open, secured crucial breaks of serve at the end of the second set and the start of the third.

Bidding for this 11th career title, the third-seeded Berdych won 92 percent of his points on first serve and saving the only break point he faced in the first set, where he broke Wawrinka’s serve once.

But the 29-year-old Wawrinka broke for a 5-3 lead and broke again and held for 2-0 at the start of the third set.

Wawrinka then broke again to take complete control at 4-1 up, but Berdych broke back and held for 4-3 to give himself a fighting chance of a comeback.

Berdych, who had nine aces, saved one match point when serving at 5-3 down, before Wawrinka clinched victory at the next opportunity on his serve.

Nishikori survives to reach Memphis semifinals

In Memphis, Japan’s Kei Nishikori kept his bid for a third straight ATP Memphis Open title on course with a gritty, three-set semifinal victory over Sam Querrey on Saturday.

The top-seeded Nishikori withstood 27 aces from America’s Querrey, toiling for two hours and 41 minutes to claim a 5-7, 7-6 (7/5), 7-6 (7/5) victory.

Nishikori, the 2014 US Open runner-up and a quarter-finalist at this year’s Australian Open, next faces second-seeded South African Kevin Anderson, who outlasted American Donald Young 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.

Nishikori will be seeking an eighth career title. Four of those came last year, when he repeated in Memphis and also won the Barcelona Open, Malaysian Open and Japan Open.

But his week hasn’t been entirely smooth, as he has had to rally from a set down in all three of his matches.

He had two match points on Querrey’s serve at 5-6 in the third set, but Querrey won four points in a row to force the tiebreaker, then took a 4-2 lead in the decider.

Nishikori won five of the next six points, however, to seal the win.

“I thought a couple of times I might lose tonight,” Nishikori said. “He was hitting a lot of aces and it was tough for me to hit any returns. I kept playing my game and as soon as I had a chance at his second serve, I tried to come in.”

Anderson, the 28-year-old world number 15, blasted 13 aces past Young to reach the championship match.

He broke Young at love in the seventh game of the final set for a 4-3 lead and held twice for the triumph, his fifth in six meetings with the 25-year-old US left-hander.

“I thought it was a really tough match,” said Anderson, who saved all four break points he faced in the second and third sets.

“There were parts of the match where I didn’t feel like I maybe played my best tennis, but I was able to hang in there.

“I’ve got a shot at winning the title tomorrow and that’s what I came here to do,” added Anderson, who has lost his past five ATP finals appearances, most recently last March at Acapulco to Grigor Dimitrov.

His only ATP titles came at the 2011 South African Open and in 2012 at Delray Beach, Florida, where he now resides.