By Greg Stutchbury
Serena Williams thrashed Russia's Dinara Safina 6-0 6-3 on Saturday to win the Australian Open title and reclaim the world number one ranking. Williams raced to victory in just 59 minutes to capture her fourth singles title at Melbourne Park, after her previous wins in 2003, 2005 and 2007, and her 10th grand slam overall.
Safina, playing in just her second major final, won just eight points in the first set. She broke second seed Williams at the start of the second set and twice held her own serve but was unable to prevent Williams from wrapping up a lopsided victory.
Williams, who last claimed the top ranking in September after triumphing at the 2008 U.S. Open, will replace Serbia's Jelena Jankovic as the world number one when the new standings are released on Monday.
Safina, playing in just her second grand slam final, had a nervous start making three double faults in her first service game, the third of which handed Williams a 2-0 lead.
The pattern continued on Safina's second service game when the aggressive American bludgeoned winners and forced the Russian to run around the court and she broke to love.
Williams then held to love to take a 5-0 lead and broke Safina again in the sixth game on her first set point when the Russian smacked the ball into the net.
The 22-year-old Russian extracted a huge round of applause at the beginning of the second set when she managed to break Williams in the first game.
Williams, however, only seemed to get angry with herself, breaking Safina in the next game then blasting her off the court to love to take a 2-1 lead.
With the American racing towards victory, Safina at least avoided the ignominy of suffering most one-sided defeat in an Australian Open final when she held to 15 to take the score to 4-2, but she could not stop the Williams juggernaut.
Williams held with some thumping serves and booming groundstrokes to give her the chance to seal the match on Safina's serve.
Safina held her nerve to move the score to 5-3 but it was only delaying the inevitable and Williams sealed victory when the third seed's backhand drop shot drifted just wide on the first match point.// Reuters
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