TheSportsCampus

Women's world no.1 Dinara Safina continued to stamp her dominance on the game, winning her second consecutive final in two weeks, beating Danish teenager Caroline Wozniacki 6-2, 6-4 to clinch the Mutua Madrileña Madrid Open title.

Safina has had a tremendous start to 2009 following an Australian Open final appearance with three successive finals on the European clay, losing the first to Svetlana Kuznetsova in Stuttgart before beating Kuznetsova in Roma last week. Her victory on Sunday only reaffirms her position as the favourite going into the French Open where she was once again a finalist, losing out to Serbian youngster Ana Ivanovic.

The two finalists had never played each other before, and came into the final with relatively easy wins over their semi-final opponents. Wozniacki, who hadn't dropped a set all week till she met Safina, beat former World no.1 and Wimbledon champion Amelie Mauresmo 7-6, 6-3 in a semi-final that swung one way, then the other right through. Safina had it slightly easier against tour veteran Patty Schnyder, advancing 6-4, 6-2 in an hour and a quarter.

The little known Danish girl has had an excellent 2009, winning the title at Ponte Vedra Beach and making the final at Charleston. She is expected to break into the top 10 when the new rankings are released on Monday, and started Sunday's final in confident fashion, holding her first service game.

Unfortunately from then on it was completely downhill for the youngster as Safina overpowered her in the opening set breaking serve twice and rattling off five games in a row to take a 5-1 lead. Wozniacki held serve valiantly, saving a set point in the process, for 2-5. But Safina had no trouble at all closing out the set in her next service game.

Wozniacki had served an immaculate 74% in the opening set, but her first serve lacked any real venom, and she won just 50% of her points on it.

Safina picked up a decisive break in the opening game of the second set to put herself firmly in command of the contest. With nothing to lose, Wozniacki switched from a cautious 'get the ball back in' approach to a more aggresive 'go for your shots' strategy in the second set.

The set was a lot closer as Wozniacki threatened the Safina serve, creating four break opportunities for herself. However, her inability to take advantage of Safina's second serve proved to be decisive as the Russian dropped just 3 points of it in the set.

Wozniacki saved a match point in the 9th game, before Safina wrapped up the match in the following game in just a shade under 2 hours

"I was confident from the beginning," said Safina after the match. "I tried to be aggressive from the start and it paid off for me. It was quite a close match because I gave her some chances and there were some chances I didn't take. I might have been in trouble if she'd taken them. I had chances for a double break in the second set and I didn't take them but overall I think I controlled the match."

Safina complimented her Danish opponent saying,"She's a great player, she's young and she has time to improve. Caroline can be very dangerous in the future."

Wozniacki remained upbeat despite her defeat. "I've enjoyed my week here, I like Madrid so that helped me to play better. Being No.1 in the world is my goal and I'm going to take one step at a time. I am in the top 10 now so I only have nine spots to go."

In the women's doubles final, Cara Black and Liezel Huber won their third title of the year, beating the No.3 seeds Kveta Peschke and Lisa Raymond via a match tie-break, 4-6, 6-3 10-6.

Check out our tennis photo gallery