BEIJING, Sept 26: Top seed Serena Williams celebrated her 23rd birthday on Sunday by beating Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova 4-6, 7-5, 6-4 in a tightly fought and bad tempered final at the inaugural 585,000 dollar China Open.

Williams, who smashed her racket berating a line call in the first set and saved a match point in the second, used a blistering serve and a powerful ground stroke to overpower the reigning US Open champion and second seed Kuznetsova.

The American's strength proved all too much, jumping out to a 5-2 lead in the final set as her Russian opponent appeared to run out of gas, slamming her racket onto the court in disgust after one bad shot.

The win gave Williams a second WTA title in an injury hampered 2004, and earned her a cheque for 93,000 dollars. Kuznetsova, ranked five in the world, saw her 14-match winning streak snapped, a run that included the Wismilak title in Bali last week and the US Open earlier this month.

During the match both players showed plenty of emotion as Kuznetsova's steady baseline game countered the big shots from the American, thrilling the nearly sold out crowd at the sparkling new Beijing Tennis Center.

In a fiercely fought first set both players held serve until the 10th game when Kuznetsova broke Williams on a questionable line call that left the world No. 10 American fuming as she smashed her racket to pieces while berating the line judge.

The second set saw both players break each other twice, with Williams needing six break points to win the crucial seventh game before holding her serve to level at 4-4.

The six time Grand Slam winner then saved a match point in the tenth game before coming back to break the Russian, with a frustrated Kuznetsova losing her temper and slamming her racket onto the court after bad shot as the American served out the set.

Williams advanced to the final by defeating three other Russian's including hard hitting Vera Zvonareva in Saturday's semi-final, while Kuznetsova beat reigning Wimbledon champion Maria Sharapova in the other semi-final match up.

Williams has now beaten Kuznetsova twice, after winning their first match up 7-5, 6-0 in Rome in May. -AFP