Argentine Mariano Zabaleta retained the Swedish Open title with a 6-1, 4-6, 7-6 victory over his compatriot and friend Gaston Gaudio in the rain-delayed final in Bastad, Sweden on Monday.

Second seed Gaudio won the French Open last month but Zabaleta showed he was the master on the Swedish clay as he bagged his third career title.

"This is my favourite tournament," said Zabaleta, who ended a five-year title drought last year when he won the event. "I promise to come back next year.

"I beat a great player today...I was focused and concentrated and played very well in the third set tie-break.

"It feels even better to win this year. Now, I can play some jokes with Gaston.

"Last time we played was a long time ago but I know his game very well," added Zabaleta, who practised with Gaudio in Buenos Aires in his teens.

Zabaleta clinched the first set in just 29 minutes after Gaudio failed to hold serve once.

Gaudio found his rhythm in the second set and broke Zabaleta for a 5-4 lead before levelling the contest.

Zabaleta regained the momentum at the start of the deciding set to race into a 4-2 lead.

But nerves crept into his game as he tried to close out the match. Zabaleta allowed the world number 11 to claw his way back into the match and also wasted a match point on Gaudio's serve in the 12th game.

With Gaudio forcing the match into a tie-break, Zabaleta lobbed his opponent on match point to seal it 7-4.

"Congratulations Mariano, you are a worthy winner," said Gaudio.

"This has been a great week. Like I said yesterday, the weather was the only enemy here. Everything else was unbelievable and I will be back next year."