Third seed Venus Williams defeated Italian Flavia Pennetta 7-6(1) 6-2 in the final of the $600,000 Tennis.com Zurich Open to claim her second singles title of the year and 38th career title.

The 2008 Wimbledon champion also won the Zurich title in 1999, while still a teenager.

The Tennis.com Zurich Open final was the first in four times that Venus Williams defeated Flavia Pennetta. The Italian, however, still leads their head-to-head series 3-2. Pennetta, who is expected to rise to a new career-high ranking of 14, was trying to become only the third player to beat Williams for a fourth straight match, after conquering her in Bangkok in 2007, then at Roland Garros and Moscow this year.

With the victory in her 60th career final Williams is expected to qualify for the season-ending Sony Ericsson Championships in Doha.

On her way to the Tennis.com Zurich Open title Venus Williams defeated Alona Bondarenko, Francesca Schiavone, second seed Ana Ivanovic, and finally Flavia Pennetta, who upset world No.1 Jelena Jankovic in the second round. (photo via Yahoo)

Third seed Venus Williams edged past second-seeded Ana Ivanovic 4-6 6-3 6-4 in the semifinals of the Tennis.com Zurich Open.

Ivanovic may have lost the match, but the Serbian world No.4 could consider the defeat a sort of victory as she produced probably her best performance since winning Roland Garros in June. In the match against seven-time Grand Slam champion, Ivanovic was a challenging opponent and seemed quite recovered from whatever problems forced her string of disappointments in the recent past.

Ivanovic went toe-to-toe with Williams, and even fearlessly saved three successive match points in the third set, but four first serves in the following game by the 28-year-old American were too much for Ivanovic.

Williams will play Flavia Pennetta in the Tennis.com Zurich Open final, while Ivanovic will head to Austria for the Generali Ladies Linz tournament. (via Ana Ivanovic's site, photo: Getty Images)

Venus and Serena Williams are serving up champion style in the November issue of Harper’s Bazaar magazine.

The sisters, who have 16 Grand Slam singles titles between them, posed in high heels and dresses by designers such as Louis Vuitton, Versace, Ralph Lauren and others. Read more »

Third seed Venus Williams advanced to the quarterfinals of the Tennis.com Zurich Open with a 6-3 6-4 win over Alona Bondarenko of Ukraine.

The world No.33 Bondarenko, who saved a total of five match points to move into the second round of the Zurich Open, succumbed to Williams despite having chances to break the American on several occasions.

Here’s why Bondarenko couldn’t convert any of her four break points: "When the points became important I was winning those, especially on my serve," said Williams.

The world No.9 Williams will next play Italian Francesca Schiavone, who beat Maria Kirilenko of Russia 6-3 7-5. (source: BBC, photo: Getty Images)

Sixth seed Venus Williams lost 6-4 2-6 6-4 to Italy’s Flavia Pennetta in the opening round of the Kremlin Cup in Moscow.

Pennetta and Williams exhanged breaks in the first set. The world No.18 Pennetta broke decisively on her third chance in the ninth game. Williams broke twice in the second set, but dropped serve in the first game of the third set and never recovered.

With the victory at the Kremlin Cup Pennetta has improved her record against Williams to 3-1.

The top four seeds, Jelena Jankovic, Dinara Safina, Elena Dementieva and Ana Ivanovic, have byes into the second round. (source: AP, photo: Getty Images)