Venus back in the ascendant

Venus Williams won her third clay court title and her second event of the year to beat fellow American Meghann Shaughnessy 6-3, 6-0 in the final of the $535,000 Betty Barclay Cup in Hamburg, Germany, yesterday. The victory took just 54 minutes, and came after Williams also won the Ericsson Open in Miami after previously failing to get beyond three semi-finals this year.

In each of their previous two matches, seventh seeded Shaughnessy managed to take Williams to a tiebreak before losing in straight sets, and it appeared at first as if the Hamburg final would follow the same pattern as the opening few games were closely contested.

Although Williams broke to lead 2-0, an errant backhand allowed Shaughnessy to break back in the next game. But Williams regained the advantage and led 4-2 when Shaughnessy double-faulted and then sent a backhand long, and that was enough to decide the set.

In the second set, Shaughnessy double-faulted again on break point to drop her serve in the opening game, and that was all the encouragement that Williams needed. She held to love, and then hit a fine forehand winner to break again for 3-0.

Williams said afterwards: "I had to play well to have the scores that I did have this week, because I've played them all before and had some crazy scorelines against them."

Spain's Alberto Martin won the £500,000 sterling clay-court Mallorca Open with a 6-3 3-6 62 victory over Argentine Guillermo Coria yesterday. The hard-hitting Martin, who beat local favourite Carlos Moya in the semi-fnals, started off strongly and broke the Argentine's serve in the second game.

The next six games went with serve to leave Martin with a 5-3 lead. He then served out the ninth game to love to take the first set in 36 minutes.

Martin lost just four points on his serve in the first set and looked to have the measure of the young Argentine who had beaten him in three close sets in the quarter-final of the Monte Carlo Masters.

But the 19-year-old settled in the second set and went 40-15 up in the sixth game on the Martin serve.

Martin double faulted, allowing Coria to take a 4-2 lead and with the remaining games going with serve the Argentine took the second set 6-3.

The 22-year-old Spaniard continued to run hard across the court and looked in danger of tiring, but he recovered the rhythm on his serve and looked more focused than his opponent in the final set.

Coria, continually pressured on his serve, saved a break point in the sixth game of the third set, but then double faulted to go 4-2 down.

Martin, playing his first final of the season, used his powerful backhand to the full and sprinted across the clay surface to return everything Coria could throw at him.

He continued to hold his serve with ease and then broke the Argentine's serve once again to win the final set 6-2 and take his third career title, having won tournaments in Casablanca and Bucharest in 1999.