Williams Whisks to Hamburg Title

With her second consecutive championship in hand, Venus Williams turned her attention to Martina Hingis and the No. 1 ranking.

Williams swamped Meghann Shaughnessy, 6-3, 6-0, Sunday at Hamburg, Germany to take the Betty Barclay Cup in her first tournament since winning the Ericsson Open in Key Biscayne, Fla.

The top-seeded Williams, ranked No. 2 in the world, needed only 54 minutes to win her 17th career title. She lost only 12 games in the $565,000 tournament.

“I really want to be No. 1,” said Williams, who won $90,000 for the title. “I dreamed about winning [the French Open at] Roland Garros. It was like a nightmare because I woke up and it wasn’t true, so hopefully next time I wake up I have already won it. I would really love to win it.”

Hingis and Williams are both entered at the German Open, which starts today in Berlin, although Williams won’t be able to pass the Swiss star there even if she wins the title.

“Compared to the match at the Australian Open, she is playing with a lot more power and confidence,” said the seventh-seeded Shaughnessy, who will climb to No. 21 in the rankings after being No. 97 at the end of 1999. “Her serve is much better, she just puts so much pressure on you.”

Andy Roddick, his serve occasionally exceeding 130 mph, overpowered South Korea’s Hyung-Taik Lee, 7-5, 6-3, to win the U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championships.

It was the second title in as many weeks for the 18-year-old from Boca Raton, Fla., who won his 10th consecutive match in a streak that included last week’s championship at Atlanta, his first pro title.

“It feels really good right now,” Roddick said. “I went to Atlanta without any expectations, and I came here playing well but hoping to get past a letdown and somehow I did.”

Lee was broken for the first time in the 10th game of the first set at love. Then Roddick, who earned $46,000 for the title in the $350,000 event, served three consecutive love games to close out the set.

“He was playing well,” Roddick said. “He came out early and was hitting some really unbelievable shots. I told myself to just keep holding serve.”

After holding serve in a close second game of the second set, Roddick didn’t lose another point on his serve and broke Lee in the fifth and ninth games.

The Czech Republic’s Jiri Novak defeated France’s Anthony Dupuis, 6-4, 7-5, at Munich in a BMW Open final that matched two players who had each won only one ATP tour match before the $400,000 tournament. . . . Third-seeded Angeles Montolio of Spain won the second WTA title of her career, defeating Mariana Diaz-Oliva of Argentina, 3-6, 6-2, 6-4, in the $170,000 Croatian Bol Ladies Open final. . . . Spain’s Juan Alberto Martin completed his week of surprises by beating fourth-seeded Guillermo Coria of Argentina, 6-3, 3-6, 6-2, to win the $500,000 Mallorca Open at Palma de Mallorca, Spain.