TNT Sports
Serena claims Miami crown
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Published 03/04/2004 at 18:49 GMT+1
Former world number one Serena Williams became the first woman in eight years - since Steffi Graf in 1994-96 - to capture a third successive Miami title, thrashing fifth seed Elena Dementieva of Russia 6-1 6-1 in an 50-minute final at Key Biscayne on Satu
Eurosport
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In the absence of the world's top four players including Justine Henin-Hardenne and Kim Clijsters, the 22-year-old American was appearing in her first tournament for eight months.
Dementieva broke in the first game of the match before Williams reeled off 11 straight games to take a stranglehold and set up her 24th singles title.
Williams said: "Two weeks ago I was really nervous to play out here after eight months out. I'm really excited and I'm just so happy that I was able to come back and win a title.
"I think this says I'm back and as long as I'm healthy, then I'm a top competitor. "
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.
"Maybe I didn't play my best today but it's good that she beat me so easily because now I'm going to work better," said a disappointed Dementieva.
"I'm going to improve my game. I realise that if I want to win a tournament...I have to play better in a final than I did today. I don't need to be tired in the most important moment of the tournament."
Williams collects a winner's cheque for $400,000 bringing her total 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.
The men's final on Sunday is between Andy Roddick and Argentina's Guillermo Coria, which you can follow on eurosport.com/co.uk.
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