• US Open - women's draw

Clijsters cruises to US Open title defence

Day 13 Gallery

Kim Clijsters beat Vera Zvonareva in straight sets to defend her US Open title in New York.

The second seed, who sensationally won the title last year as an unseeded wildcard after making a return to tennis following a two-and-a-half-year absence, needed exactly an hour to seal a 6-2 6-1 victory.

Clijsters was the favourite to win the title for a third time, but she was up against a player who has won their last two meetings, most notably in the quarter-finals at Wimbledon, where Zvonareva went on to reach her first Grand Slam final.

The Russian fell to pieces in the final against Serena Williams at the All England Club, and at Flushing Meadows it was a similar story.

After a sluggish start, Clijsters broke in the sixth game of the opening set, to take a 4-2 lead, and won seven games on the bounce to seal the opening set and establish a 3-0 lead in the second.

Clijsters' first break in the second was handed to her when Zvonareva doubled faulted on triple break point, and the Russian smashed her racquet to the ground in frustration.

She looked utterly defeated, but finally stemmed the Clijsters onslaught, holding serve before creating her own break point opportunity. But as Zvonareva raised her game, Clijsters responded with a flurry of powerful ground strokes, and saved break point with an ace to move within two games of victory.

Zvonareva followed her only ace of the match with her fourth double fault to hand Clijsters the chance to serve for the championship, and the Belgian sealed the win with a powerful forehand winner.

"Obviously when I started my summer, the US Open was my main goal," Clijsters said. "It was a new situation for me as well, going back to the Grand Slam where I was actually defending my title for the first time. Not having been able to do that in 2006 was frustrating at the time.

"Last year it was a different kind of attention. People were still curious to see how I was playing and people knew that with my history here that I was maybe one of the contenders. To me, I have to go match by match. Upsets can happen in the beginning of the tournament and I wasn't playing my best tennis when I wanted to in the beginning. But I was able to lift my game in the last two matches when I needed it to."

Clijsters, who won the title for the first time in 2005, is now unbeaten in 21 matches at Flushing Meadows (having not played between 2006 and 2009), while Zvonareva, who could have climbed to No. 2 in the world with victory, must reflect on another missed opportunity.

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