San Diego, USA, August 4 (Reuters) - Top seed Venus Williams became the first woman to win three consecutive titles at the $750,000 Acura Classic when she thrashed Jelena Dokic 6-2, 6-2 in the final on Sunday.
On the morning of the final, Dokic developed a stomach virus and was unable to display the form that
helped her defeat second seed Jennifer Capriati in the quarter-finals and Russia's Anna Kournikova in the semis.
In winning her second title in two weeks, the U.S. Open champion played a nearly error-free match, running Dokic from side to side with her laser-like groundstrokes.
"That's a nice little record for me," said world number two Williams in a reference to her three
successive Acura titles.
"It's really nice to keep coming back to a tournament that's so familiar, and winning is so familiar here.
That is great for me.
"I just had a great day. I figured it was a difficult time for her after two tough matches (against Capriati and Kournikova)," said Williams.
"They were very long matches and to come back and play a final, that can obviously be very challenging. Fortunately enough I'm used to playing this many matches."
Williams broke Dokic to go 3-2 up in the first set when the 19-year-old Yugoslavian dumped a backhand into the net.
Dokic dropped her serve again in the seventh game after double-faulting on break point.
With Dokic struggling to make any form of impact on the Williams serve, the athletic American wrapped up the set when the sixth seed missed a simple service return in the next game.
Williams swarmed all over Dokic in the second, breaking her three times and winning the 55-minute match after whipping an unreturnable first serve into the Yugoslav's body.
Referring to her stomach virus, Dokic said: "I wasn't good enough to play, let alone win. Generally, physically, I wasn't feeling well.
"I'm just very run down and very tired. It's the stomach but physically I'm not good. I think the Capriati match and going straight on to play Anna was the worst thing.
"I'm happy I got to the final. It's a little bit disappointing today but considering how I was feeling I don't think I could have done very much today."
