Kim Clijsters defended her US Open title on Saturday by crushing the challenge of a shell-shocked Vera Zvonareva 6-2, 6-1 in just 59 minutes, the fastest final since timing records were first kept in 1980.
It was a blowout of a championship match with Clijsters clamping a stranglehold on the game from the first exchanges and never allowing the less-experienced Russian a chance to claw her way back into it.
The popular Belgian clinched her third Grand Slam title in style when she whacked a forehand winner past a bewildered Zvonareva.
It was the 15th straight-set US Open women singles final in a row dating back to Steffi Graf’s three-set win over Monica Seles in 1995.
There has not been a more lop-sided US Open final since Maria Bueno, of Brazil, defeated Carole Caldwell Graebner, of the United States, 6-1, 6-0 in 1964.
A distraught-looking Zvonareva said simply: “Kim just played tremendously well and she deserved to win.”
In a repeat showing of last year, Clijsters was joined on the Arthur Ashe Stadium court after the prize-award ceremony by two-and-a-half year-old daughter Jada and basketball-playing husband Brian Lynch.
The 27-year-old Clijsters was playing in her third US Open final, having won the title in 2005 and last year when she stepped out of a two-year retirement, during which she gave birth to Jada, to become the first wildcard to win a Grand Slam title.
Her tough three-sets win over Venus Williams in the second of Friday’s semi-finals was her 20th straight win at Flushing Meadows spread over five years.
Zvonareva, a year younger at 26, reached her first Grand Slam final at Wimbledon in July, losing in straight sets to Serena Williams, after proving that she could control her volatile temperament over the course of a Grand Slam tournament fortnight.
She reached Saturday’s final without losing a set and with a huge straight-sets win over top seed and last year’s runner-up Caroline Wozniacki in the semi-finals.
The two finalists had played each other seven times, with Clijsters leading the series 5-2, but it was Zvonareva who had won their last two encounters, including a three-set victory in the Wimbledon quarter-finals.
Clijsters won the first 10 points of the second set to jump out into a 3-0 lead with Zvonareva losing her cool and smashing her racquet in abject frustration.
Zvonareva finally broke a run of nine games in a row against her to get to 3-1, but she just could not live with the relentless pressure that Clijsters was applying with each rally.
Last 10 Champions
2010 - Clijsters; 2009 - Clijsters; 2008 - Serena Williams; 2007 - Henin; 2006 - Sharapova; 2005 - Clijsters; 2004 - Kuznetsova; 2003 - Henin; 2002 - Serena Williams; 2001 - Venus Williams.