Venus sweeps past Dokic to win San Diego title

Top seed Venus Williams became the first woman to win three consecutive titles at the $750,000 Acura Classic when she thrashed Jelena Dokic 6-2, 6-2 in the final on Sunday.

On the morning of the final, Dokic developed a stomach virus and was unable to display the form that helped her defeat second seed Jennifer Capriati in the quarter-finals and Russia's Anna Kournikova in the semis.

In winning her second title in two weeks, the U.S. Open champion played a nearly error-free match, running Dokic from side to side with her laser-like groundstrokes.

"That's a nice little record for me," said world number two Williams in a reference to her three successive Acura titles.

"It's really nice to keep coming back to a tournament that's so familiar, and winning is so familiar here. That is great for me.

"I just had a great day. I figured it was a difficult time for her after two tough matches (against Capriati and Kournikova)," said Williams.

"They were very long matches and to come back and play a final, that can obviously be very challenging. Fortunately enough I'm used to playing this many matches."

Williams, who has won six titles this year, was asked if she found it hard to keep motivating herself.

"No. I think I have quite a few years left to do really well," said the American. "I would definitely want to utilize my time.

PERSONAL GOAL

"If anything I don't want to look back and say I didn't give it my all, and have no regrets. My personal goal is to do my personal best and that's all I expect of myself.

"For me, that's winning every match I play, but that's not possible. Sometimes you have to lose in order to get better.

"I hope I can be a big part of something big in this sport, and people will remember she was a player who helped bring the sport forward."

Asked what she needed to do to displace her younger sister Serena as world number one, Williams said: "She's crazy about beating me nowadays. Maybe she'll give me a small break and I can take something home for myself.

"Really, she'll always be my little sister and I'm so proud of everything she does. It's kind of a win-lose situation for me."

Williams broke Dokic to go 3-2 up in the first set when the 19-year-old Yugoslavian dumped a backhand into the net.

Dokic dropped her serve again in the seventh game after double-faulting on break point.

With Dokic struggling to make any form of impact on the Williams serve, the athletic American wrapped up the set when the sixth seed missed a simple service return in the next game.

Williams swarmed all over Dokic in the second, breaking her three times and winning the 55-minute match after whipping an unreturnable first serve into the Yugoslav's body.

Referring to her stomach virus, Dokic said: "I wasn't good enough to play, let alone win. Generally, physically, I wasn't feeling well.

"I'm just very run down and very tired. It's the stomach but physically I'm not good. I think the Capriati match and going straight on to play Anna was the worst thing.

"I'm happy I got to the final. It's a little bit disappointing today but considering how I was feeling I don't think I could have done very much today."