Miami, April 5 (IANS/EFE) American top seed Serena Williams was in devastating form here on Saturday afternoon in the final of the Miami Open, trouncing Spain’s Carla Suarez Navarro 6-2, 6-0 in less than an hour to claim her eighth title at this elite hard-court event.
Williams hit 26 more winners than her opponent (29-3) and won 95 percent of her first-serve points en route to capturing her second title of the season, the other being the Australian Open, the year’s first Grand Slam event.
The Spaniard, who will move into the top 10 for the first time when the new WTA rankings come out on Monday, started well to stay even with the 19-time Grand Slam champion through four games.
But the 33-year-old Williams completely dominated the match from that point forward, hitting serves and ground strokes with so much power that Suarez Navarro was typically unable to keep the rallies alive beyond three or four shots.
The Spanish No. 12 seed, who was competing in a final of a WTA Premier Mandatory event for the first time in her career, hit a series of unforced errors to drop her serve in the sixth game and was unable to challenge the world No. 1 the rest of the way.
Williams was particularly lethal with her return game, allowing Suarez Navarro to win a paltry 26 percent of her second-serve points for the match.
After Williams snuffed out the 26-year-old Spaniard’s lone break-point opportunity in the second set and then grabbed a 3-0 lead, Suarez Navarro appeared resigned to her fate, putting up little fight as the American raced through the remaining games.
The Miami Open will conclude on Sunday, when Serbian top seed Novak Djokovic will take on No. 3 seed Andy Murray of Britain in the men’s final.
–IANS/EFE
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