By Randy Walker
Kim Cljisters won the biggest tennis tournament in the United States last September when she won the U.S. Open.
Saturday, she won the second biggest.
The Belgian dominated Venus Williams 6-2, 6-1 in just 58 minutes in the title match at the Sony Ericsson Open, regarded by many as the most important tournament outside of the four Grand Slam tournaments.
Clijsters, 26, played steady, consistent tennis while Williams was not in top form, committing numerous errors. During one stretch, Clijsters won 17 straight points in the second set, many off of unforced errors from the 29-year-old Williams.
”I was ready to go and was seeing the ball really well,” said Clijsters to Mary Joe Fernandez on CBS Sports following the win. “I stayed really consistent during the match today.”
While Clijsters was an unseeded, unranked wild card entry last September in the U.S. Open, Clijsters was seeded No. 14 in Key Biscayne this week, and will move back into the top 10 – at No. 10 – on the WTA Tour computer on Monday with her tournament victory.
The title was the 37th of Clijsters’ career and her third since she came out of retirement last summer – the other two being the U.S. Open last year and earlier this year in Brisbane, Australia. The title was also the second for Clijsters in Key Biscayne, having previously won the title in 2005, defeating Maria Sharapova 6-3, 7-5 in the final.
Williams was seeking her fourth Key Biscayne title and was riding a 15-match win streak – with two tournament titles – entering the early spring hard court event.