Williams wins Sony Ericsson Open

Key Biscayne:

Serena Williams overcame a terrible start to defeat Justine Henin 0-6, 7-5, 6-3 in Saturday's final of the Sony Ericsson Open.

Earlier, the last time Serena Williams had encountered Justin Henin on the tennis court was nearly four years ago.

She started the final of the Sony Ericsson Open like a player badly out of touch and was well off the pace in the first set.

Henin, a five-time Grand Slam champion playing in her first Key Biscayne final, used her vast array of shots to control the early rallies.

Off balance

Williams was off balance and struggled in vain to control the groundstrokes that overpowered top-seeded Maria Sharapova and others in previous matches.

Williams won only six points in her first four service games - the first set went to the Belgian, 6-0.

She finally won a game by breaking for one-all in the second set, then held for the first time in the next game.

Clashing titans

But in a battle of two great scrappers, Henin kept going - though her play did become more tentative.

The Belgian served for the match at 5-4 in the second - hit a couple of double faults- and squandered two matchpoints as Serena amply demonstrated that there is nothing wrong with her nerves.

A couple of tumbles on the sunbaked concrete didn't help Henin's cause as the balance tipped in Serena's favour.

She fell for a second time trailing 3-0 in the final set and remained seated on the sunbaked concrete for nearly a minute.

Up she rose though and rallied for 3-all before Williams began one final surge to earn her fourth Key Biscayne title, courtesy of the 0-6, 7-5, 6-3 win.