MIAMI, April 4: Defending champion Serena Williams crowned her comeback by winning the Nasdaq-100 Open title with a 6-1 6-1 rout of Elena Dementieva in the final on Saturday.
Williams, playing her first tournament after an eight-month lay-off with knee problems, faced scant resistance from Dementieva, who struggled with both her serve and the accuracy of her ground-strokes.
Before arriving in Miami, Williams had not played since winning Wimbledon last July and had undergone surgery in August. Dementieva, world-ranked eight, failed to capitalise after breaking the Williams serve in the opening game of the match.
The American broke back immediately and again in the Russian's next service game, wrapping up the set in 24 minutes. Things did not get any better for Dementieva in the second set as Williams continued to profit from her mistakes, most notably her nine double faults.
The Russian staged a last-minute fight-back at 0-5 when Williams served for the championship, but it proved to be too little, too late and she surrendered both her serve and the match in the next game.
Williams's victory marks the third Nasdaq-100 Open title of her career and a 24th singles title in all. The $400,000 winner's cheque brings her career prize-money up to $12,946,863. She dropped just one set en-route to the title, against Elena Likhovtseva, and was otherwise untroubled despite her lengthy spell on the sidelines. -Reuters
