Kim Clijsters makes it two U.S. Open titles in a row, with little fight from foe

Reporting from New York — 

The celebration was muted for Kim Clijsters, at first. Her opponent, Vera Zvonareva, provided little opposition in the U.S. Open women’s final, unraveling bit by bit and never offering a moment of competitive tenseness.

So the second-seeded Clijsters won her second straight Open title Saturday night, 6-2, 6-1, in 59 minutes over the seventh-seeded Zvonareva in an anticlimactic prime time final.

After Clijsters had hugged Zvonareva and told her beaten opponent that it takes some time to feel comfortable in these big matches, it was left for Clijsters’ 30-month-old daughter, Jada, to bring the joy to the court after the match, the shortest Open final since time of match began being officially recorded in 1980.

This is the first time since Venus Williams won back-to-back titles in 2000 and 2001 that a woman has successfully defended her title here. “I’m happy I was capable of repeating history,” Clijsters said.

Jada is too young to appreciate history yet. Instead the toddler kissed her mom and was dazzled by the sparkling trophy. She mouthed “no pictures” toward photographers, and held up a tape measure that seemed to have no purpose except to keep a toddler amused.

There were large portions of the final when the 23,443 in Arthur Ashe Stadium might have wished for their own tape measures.

Because Zvonareva had beaten Clijsters the last two times they had played, including in the quarterfinals at Wimbledon in July, there were expectations of a close match.

But that Wimbledon loss had stuck with Clijsters. “It was one of the most disappointing losses I’ve dealt with in my career,” she said. “So I was excited to play her in the final and get my revenge.”

The downfall of Zvonareva, a 26-year-old who is studying international economic relations, began in the sixth game of the first set when she had her serve broken in a flurry of forehand errors.

It picked up speed early in the second set when Zvonareva did the splits trying to track down a Clijsters forehand. She missed, and in her frustration the Russian pummeled her tennis racket until the frame broke.

What followed quickly was Clijsters’ 21st consecutive match win in this tournament. She had won the championship in 2005, missed one year because of an injury, two because of retirement, and then won last year, a title that was touched by controversy because she was the semifinal opponent when Serena Williams melted down over a late foot-fault call and left the tournament having defaulted after an obscene tantrum directed at the lineswoman who made the call.

This year Clijsters’ toughest challenge again came from a Williams, this time 30-year-old Venus, who took the first set against Clijsters in their semifinal before losing in three.

It was the second straight Grand Slam final appearance for Zvonareva. She lost to Serena Williams at Wimbledon, 6-3, 6-2.

“Physically today she was just a much better player,” Zvonareva said. “Physically I was not capable of playing at the same level as she was. I was not fast enough on the court and she had much more time to play her game.”

The only bright spot for Zvonareva came in the fourth game of the second set when Zvonareva earned her first break point. Clijsters promptly put in her first ace of the match and a point later followed up with a leaping overhead. Clijsters pumped her fist into the silence of the stadium. Most of the night crowd was hoping for a longer fight that wouldn’t come.

“It’s very tough,” Clijsters said after the match while she was still on court. “Vera was saying before the ceremony that she was frustrated over the way she played. I said I know exactly the way you feel. In those finals I lost I felt I never played my best tennis.”

Clijsters, who lost in four Grand Slam finals before getting a major title, won $2.5 million — $1.7 million for the Open title and a $500,000 bonus for finishing second during the summer series of hard-court tournaments.

diane.pucin@latimes.com

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