Serena Williams won her third successive WTA Finals title and fifth overall by beating Simona Halep 6-3, 6-0 over the weekend, avenging an embarrassing group-stage loss to the Romanian player
Halep easily beat Williams just four days earlier during the group stage of the tournament, but the American turned that around with an aggressive game plan.
Williams won 11 of the last 12 games in the match to join Martina Navratilova and Steffi Graf as the only players to have won five titles in the season-ending championships.
The 33-year-old pulled out of her previous two tournaments with illness and a knee injury, yet still claimed the $2 million first prize, claimed the Billie-Jean King Trophy and also had a breed of orchid named after her in recognition.
“I just started training, because I had such a bad knee in Beijing I didn’t know if I’d be able to play here, and now I have won the Billie-Jean King trophy — I am so excited,” Williams said.
The match was the most one-sided championship match in the WTA Finals since Kim Clijsters beat Amelie Mauresmo 6-2, 6-0 in 2003.
The doubles final was even more one-sided with Cara Black and Sania Mirza — in their last match together as a pairing — routing defending champions Peng Shuai and Hsieh Su-Wei 6-1, 6-0.
