Roddick had to work hard for his victory against Mahut

An upset looked to be on the cards as Frenchman Mahut, ranked 106th in the rankings, easily took the first set.

The American world number five then survived a match point in the second but was at his fired-up best as he took the tie-break to force a deciding set.

That also went to a tie-break, with Roddick racing to a 7-2 victory.

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Roddick is one of the men expected to challenge reigning champion Roger Federer at Wimbledon later this month, and the Nebraskan admitted his build up could not have gone better.

"In terms of preparation for Wimbledon, I could not have asked for any more," the 24-year-old told BBC Sport.

"But Nicolas made me dig really deep. He was outplaying me for most of the match, I had to keep fighting and I was able to get a bit lucky.

"If he keeps playing like that, he will be up there (near the top of the rankings) in no time."

With his fourth title, Roddick moves past his coach Jimmy Connors, who won at Queen's in 1972, 1982 and 1983.

Roddick joked: "I have won this four times now, and you (Connors) have won only three.

"I had to get that in, because it is not very often that I can say it at a tournament, and I don't know whether I will be able to say it again."

Both men served so well throughout they earned only one break point apiece, with Mahut taking his chance to claim the first set.

In the second set they both served as consistently as they had in the first and it went to a tie-break.

The tie-break was equally tight, with the first 15 points going with serve until Mahut - who put a forehand into the net on match point at 7-6 - steered a volley into the net to hand it to Roddick 9-7.

The third set went the same way as the second until the tie-break.