Nobody in Bermuda could stop Luis Horna.

As soon as he arrived on the Island after a narrow semi-final defeat to Andy Roddick in Houston, the aggressive Peruvian was a man on a mission.

Even before his first game in the 2004 XL Bermuda Open, the shaven-headed number one seed could be heard grunting away on the practice courts - putting everything into his shots even against his coach and practice partners.

As he swept aside Sebastian De Chaunac, young pretender Frank Dancevic, the experienced Davide Sanguinetti and qualifier Stephane Robert, Horna became increasingly powerful.

So when he took to the Court for the men's final, many expected him to sweep aside Italian/Argentinian Martin Vassallo Arguello, despite the latter's ability to recover from some desperate moments in the earlier rounds.

The number six seed, who wasn't going to lose his ‘Comeback Kid' status without a fight, put in a grandstand performance to defy his 115 world ranking and turn the final into a genuine - and memorable - classic.

But the temperamental and entertaining Horna was not to be denied his moment of glory on his fourth visit to the Island and smashed, snarled, drove and fought his way to a 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 victory exhibiting all the grittiness and determination of a true South American ‘dirt-baller'.

Clear tournament favourite from the outset, Horna showed exactly why he is only hovering outside the world's top 50 with yet another unerring display of power hitting.

The Peruvian has shown throughout the week, particularly in Saturday's destruction of tournament surprise and the XL's Mr Nice Guy Robert, that no one can match him for accuracy and ball speed.

And in yesterday's final he continued to demonstrate just how hard a little man can hit a ball if he correctly adheres to the laws of physics.

Operating very much like a mobile ball machine, the 23-year-old continually unleashed groundstrokes of near-perfect length and depth from every conceivable angle of the Coral Beach centre court.

But to make it near-impossible to keep up with, this ball machine also has another setting, immaculate-drop-shot-mode, and although this was a little errant in the first set, the power strokes were enough to see Horna to a 6-4 win.

Up until the eighth game, the final was very much going with serve, with neither a deuce nor a break point in sight.

But Arguello, who has faced three-set matches in all but one of his previous encounters en route to the windy and overcast final, finally began to succumb to the incessant torrent.

Although managing to stave off Horna in that game, despite three break points, the Italian first-time visitor to Bermuda caved in during his next service game.

At 5-4 down, he double faulted twice and Horna, whose daughter Luna celebrated her first birthday while her daddy was winning the $15,000 first prize, took the set.

A temporary lapse in intensity by Robo-Horna saw his serve broken in the second set's opening game, but normal service was restored as Arguello was broken in a swift and, no doubt draining, immediate response.

But in the ninth game, again Arguello prevailed with his dogged ability to keep battling against the odds and forget about being 56 places below his opponent in the world.

In an intriguing tenth game, the 24-year-old worked his way up to a 0-40 lead and then sealed the set to leave Horna trudging off with a now-familiar look of anguish.

In the final set, Horna was broken in the first game and began to short-circuit in a similar manner to previous rounds.

One ball was kicked into the corporate boxes while another, after an Arguello backhand collapsed unplayable off the net, was smashed to the far side of South Shore Road.

Horna recovered from 0-40 down in his second service game to remain just one break down and when it looked like the balance of power was swinging towards the Italian he broke back in the seventh game.

At 4-4, Horna then survived two break points by refusing to back down from his attacking style.

As the two-hour mark approached, and the continual threat of rain worsened, it came down to the final game.

Horna worked his way to 30-40 with a devastating crosscourt backhand which found the line and when Arguello then netted, the standing ovation was predictable.

“It was a very tough game, Martin is a very good player,” said Horna after receiving his trophy and telling the crowd that “this is the best tournament on the Tour”.

“I had to work hard. In the second set, he got away from me a little bit and when he had broken me in the third I was a little worried.

“But I knew I would get a chance and I just had to be alive when it came - which I was.

“I am very happy to win and I will be back.”

Arguello, who has won the hearts of the crowds over the week and got an extra round of applause for individually thanking all the final's ballkids, was gracious in defeat.

“Luis is a very good player and he is hard to play against,” he said.

“I was beaten by the better player. I think he got a little nervous in the second set over a couple of calls by the umpire which helped me get back in.”

It was that nervousness, or anger, that is the only real deficiency in Horna's game.

His temper makes him the player he is. And he is a player who was too strong, literally, for anyone else in the tournament.