Grand finale for Clijsters

Kim Clijsters of Belgium did what few could in 2002, defeating world No 1 Serena Williams 7-5, 6-3 to capture the prestigious WTA Tour champ...

Kim Clijsters of Belgium did what few could in 2002, defeating world No 1 Serena Williams 7-5, 6-3 to capture the prestigious WTA Tour championships.

Clijsters, seeded fifth in the elite season finale which is open to the top 16 players in the world, posted her first career victory over Williams, whose eight titles in 2002 included the French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open.

Williams suffered just her fifth defeat of the season and saw an 18-match winning streak snapped. As in her previous two matches here, she was hurt by her unforced errors — 44 throughout the 1hr 25min match. She lost just 14 games and didn’t drop a set en route to the $ 765,000 winner’s prize.

If someone had told her she would beat Williams in straight sets in the final, Clijsters said, ‘‘I wouldn’t have believed him. I just tried to run as many balls back as I could, and she made some easy mistakes.’’ Clijsters also became the fourth player to beat both Serena and Venus Williams in the same tournament, and the first since Martina Hingis at the 2001 Australian Open. Arantxa Sanchez Vicario did it at Sydney in 1998, and Steffi Graf did it in Sydney in 1999.