Victoria Azarenka has claimed the Indian Wells title with a straight-sets victory over world number one Serena Williams in California this evening.
The Belarusian, who will move up to second in the world in the new rankings, picked up just her fourth victory in 21 meetings with Williams with a 6-4 6-4 triumph to deny her opponent a 70th career singles title.
Williams, who was appearing in the final for the first time since the 2001 event which led to her boycotting the tournament for 14 years, got off to the worst possible start when Azarenka broke her to love in the opening game of the contest.
Williams was much less wasteful on her own serve for the remainder of the set, but she struggled to make a breakthrough against the serve as Azarenka held off five break points before wrapping up the opener 6-4.
The second set began in similar fashion to the first though, with Azarenka breaking in the opening game before doing so again at the next opportunity to race into a 4-0 lead.
Williams finally got a couple of holds on the board and registered her first break of the contest to give herself late hope, but Azarenka held her nerve to come back from 40-15 down in the final game and clinch the match in 90 minutes.
Barney Corkhill
