Serena opens title defence with crushing win
Steve Keating
World number one Serena Williams opened the defence of her WTA Championships trophy with a 6-2, 6-2 demolition of Israel's Anna Smashnova on Thursday.
With a successful defence of her title, the American would cap a remarkable year, which included grand slam wins at the French and U.S. Opens and Wimbledon, by becoming the first woman in tennis to earn $4 million in a single season.
But even Williams, the sport's biggest attraction who learned to play tennis in nearby Compton, could not pull in more than a few thousand spectators to the tour's $3 million year-end extravaganza which has been plagued by poor attendances on the first two days.
Despite having not played since lifting her eighth title of the season six weeks ago, Williams needed only a few games to shake off the rust as she overpowered Smashnova in just 53 minutes.
"It would be great," said Williams when asked about defending the title.
LARGE BOUNTY
"I'm going to take it one match at a time but I'm going to have to play better than I did today. I have a large bounty on my head now."
Citing fatigue, Williams withdrew from events in Filderstadt, Zurich and Linz after claiming her season-leading eighth title in Leipzig.
But the world number one has hardly been at home recharging her batteries, having kept busy with acting roles, lessons and sponsorship appearances.
Back on court Williams was all business but did not rate her performance highly, despite dominating the match from start to finish.
Williams opened the match by breaking Smashnova at the first opportunity but then allowed her Israeli opponent to immediately break back.
That was the high point of the match for Smashnova as Williams broke again before taking four of the next five games to claim a one-set lead.
A scrappy Smashnova battled to 2-2 in the second set but again wilted against Williams's punishing power, the American sprinting through the last four games to clinch the match, giving her 37 wins from her last 38 matches.
Williams will now meet Yugoslavia's Jelena Dokic, who advanced with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Russia's Anastasia Myskina.
