Kim Clijsters Routs Venus Williams in Miami Final Dud

For the first six rounds of this tournament, Venus Williams was the clear favorite.  The ten match win streak she came to Miami with grew to fifteen by the final, only once put in any real jeopardy along the way.  She was moving well, serving well, and hitting the ball cleanly off both sides.

For the first six rounds of the tournament, anyway.

In Saturday's Women's Singles final, Venus Williams looked like anything but the favorite.  Her movement impaired by an apparent knee injury, the #3 seed fell to #14 seed Kim Clijsters in a rout, by the score of 6-2, 6-1.

Clijsters played well, but it's hard to imagine a player who wouldn't have beaten Williams with how incapacitated she looked out there.  The three games she won were more the result of Clijsters' rushing, hasty style than any sort of signs of life.

It's a big title for Clijsters, to be sure, but she didn't make it look pretty.  She cruised through the early part of her draw, but her match against Henin in the semifinals goes down as one of the sloppiest matches of the year in the WTA so far, which is saying something.  Clijsters should be able to make a lot of noise on clay, but for whatever reason she's lacked confidence on the surface recently.  But cracking the top ten only eight tournaments into her come back should give her some swagger, though, one would think.

The elder Williams had won Miami in three of her first four appearances at the tournament ('98, '99, '01), but has not hoisted the trophy since.  And while this loss has been a disappointment, she's still played better for most of this tournament than she did at any point during 2009.  A sixth Wimbledon title certainly appears likely based on previous form, but if that knee keeps her as ineffective as she was Saturday, making it to the second week would be a stretch.