February 22, 2010

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Venus Williams won her second straight title on Saturday at the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships in the United Arab Emirates, a prestigious Premier 5 event on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour.

The American veteran, seeded third at the $2 million tournament, defeated rising star Victoria Azarenka 6-3, 7-5 in a high quality, hard fought championship final.

"Obviously I'm happy to close the tournament out. I've had a lot of success here the last two years, and I enjoy my time off the courts too,” said Williams after her victory.

The win gave Williams her first tournament triumph of 2010 and 42nd singles title of her career, which is most among active players just ahead of Justine Henin’s 41 titles.

Maria’s Queen in the Land of the King

Meanwhile, at the Cellular South Cup in Memphis, Maria Sharapova was crowned champion thanks to a dominant 6-2, 6-1 win over qualifier Sofia Arvidsson in the final.

As the prohibited favourite at the $220,000 International Series event, the talented Russian certainly lived up to her top-seeded billing, not dropping a set and losing just 21 games in 10 sets en route to her 21st career singles title, first of her 2010 campaign and second since returning to the Tour after a 10 month injury layoff last May.

"I feel great. I came here for matches - I got five and I got the win, so it was a good week," said Sharapova. "I served and returned well, two things that are very important indoors. I also did the right things against Sofia today. I worked hard after the Australian Open and little by little things are coming along."