Though in an unfamiliar city, top seed Serena Williams turned the inaugural China Open WTA tennis tournament into a home court here on Saturday as she stormed into the singles finals over Vera Zvonareva of Russia for a 2-0 victory.
Starting with a double fault and finishing with an ace for 185 km, Serena crushed 4th seed Zvonareva 6-2, 6-3 in 61 minutes while the sellout crowd made big applause for the American world No. 10 all the time.
Serena held a dominant two win record against No. 11 Zvonareva, last time coming from one set down to take a 2-1 victory in Los Angeles this year.
However, Serena showed her speed and power in Saturday and forced Zvonareva six double faults and poor first serve percentage.
Serena said: "I just really relaxed, enjoyed myself in Beijing, like sightseeing and playing. I played a decent match."
Serena will meet newly crowned US Open winner Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia, who early beat Wimbledon champion Maria Sharapova in an all-Russian semifinal 6-2, 6-2, at the 585,000 US dollars China Open.
"I am excited to play with Kuznetsova, I played her once in Rome, Italy this year and I won 7-5, 6-0," Serena said.
Zvonareva, who broke into tears during the second set and after the game, said: "Serena plays very fast that you need to play with your best shots. I don't know why I have so much double faults today. My first serve was also not very good."
"I was very better in the second, but she was too strong and serve very good," Zvonareva said.
In the mixed doubles final, Tripp Phillips of the United States and Emmanuelle Gagliardi of Switzerland romped Justin Gimelstob and Jill Craybas of the United States 6-1, 6-2 for the title.
Gagliard also reached the doubles final with Dinara Safina from Russia after they beat Chinese Olympic champions Li Ting/Sun Tiantian 4-6, 6-1, 6-0.
They will play the winner between Nicole Pratt of Australia/Tamarine Tanasugarn of Thailand and Gisela Dulko of Argentina/Maria Vento-Kabchi of Venezuela.
(Xinhua News Agency September 26, 2004)
