Serena caps season in great style

Swiss ace beats Pospisil

Serena Williams capped off a season to remember by capturing her fourth WTA Championship title with a 2-6, 6-3, 6-0 win over Li Na on Sunday.

The 32-year-old American finished off a dominant year, in which she also won the French and US Opens, by scooping up her 11th title of 2013.

China's Li, whose run to the final helped her to climb to third in the world -- thus becoming the highest-ranked Asian woman ever -- broke the Williams serve twice in the first set.

However, the world number one shifted gears in the second set to roar through 6-3.
Williams showed little signs of the fatigue she complained about a day earlier, after playing more than 80 games this season, as she flattened Li in the third set with her brutal power and on court coverage.

She became the first player to successfully defend the WTA title since Justine Henin in 2007. Williams also won the elite tournament of the eight top-ranked players in 2001, 2009 and 2012.

Williams has won 78 of 82 matches this year. She will finish the year as the top-ranked player for the third time, the others in 2002 and 2009.

Federer wait endures

Roger Federer's unhappy season continued on Sunday when he lost to Juan Martin del Potro in the final of the Basel Open for the second year running. The Swiss played some of his best tennis this year but it was still not enough to stop him from being on the receiving end of a 7-6 (3), 2-6, 6-4 defeat against the powerful Argentine and his 220 kph serve.

To add to his woes, victory would have guaranteed Federer a place in the season-ending World Tour Finals but his hopes of qualifying for the tournament he has won a record six times will be decided at next week's Paris Masters.

After Del Potro took the first set, the momentum seemed to swing Federer's way when he raced through the second set.

But the turning point came in the first game of the third set when Federer was broken after leading 40-15. Del Potro hit a stunning return on his way to break point and, although the Swiss hero saved one point with an amazing backhand overhead smash, Del Potro took the game when Federer overhit a forehand.

Del Potro went on to take the set and win his fourth ATP title of the season after Tokyo, Washington and Rotterdam.

At the Valencia Open, unseeded Russian Mikhail Youzhny denied top seed and defending champion David Ferrer a fourth title when he beat the world number three 6-3, 7-5 in the final.