Fifth seed Serena Williams was ruthless in the Family Circle Cup final against ninth seed Lucie Safarova, ousting the Czech 6-0 6-1 in 58 minutes to win her landmark 40th WTA title.

Williams was equally merciless against second-seeded Sam Stosur in yesterday's semi, beating the Australian 6-1 6-1. Let me remind you, Williams' last final prior to Charleston was the 2011 US Open, which she lost to Stosur 6-2 6-3.

Beware of Serena! Her performance at Charleston was awe-inspiring and she won the title whilst losing just 15 games all week. In addition, now she'll move from No.10 to No.9 in the rankings, and in the upcoming weeks she doesn't have points to defend until the grasscourt season, and nothing substantial to defend until the summer hardcourt season.

The Charleston title makes Serena only the third active played to win 40 or more WTA titles – Venus Williams has won 43 and Kim Clijsters 41. (photo: Neal Trousdale)

World No.1 and reigning Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka wanted Amelie Mauresmo in her team, and her coach Sam Sumyk made it happen, hiring the Frenchwoman as a consultant.

Samyk revealed:

We would be making a mistake if we were to deprive ourselves of her kind of experience and ability. Amelie is Vika’s choice and from the moment she expressed that wish, I have tried to make it happen.

Here’s how the former No.1 Mauresmo commented on her new cooperation:

Some news from Monaco where I started a work period of 2 weeks a couple days ago with Vika Azarenka! I'm sure it's gonna be a great adventure and that I can help her by sharing my experience… All the team is amazing and very open with me so thanks to them!

Australian Open and Wimbledon champion Mauresmo ended her illustrious 17-year career in December 2009. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Who would have thought that the the losers of both the semifinals of a Premier-level tournament in Charleston would together win a total of only two games! In the first semifinal second-seeded Samantha Stosur lost to Serena Williams 6-1 6-1 in less than an hour, while in the next semi Lucie Safarova double bageled Polona Hercog in an hour and four minutes.

Hercog took out Kimiko Date-Krumm in the first round, Varvara Lepchenko in the second, seed No.3 Marion Bartoli in the third, seed No.14 Nadia Petrova in the quarterfinals, but 31 unforced error in the final four against Safarova dragged the Slovenian to defeat. According to the Eurosport commentator, this is  the fourth time a played lost 6-0 6-0 this year.

Serena Williams and Lucie Safarova have played each other four times, and the American won all those encounters. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Two Williams sisters was too big a chunk for Sam Stosur to swallow. The Australian seed No.2 was solid and precise yesterday against Venus in the quarterfinals of Charleston, but the younger Williams was merciless, cutting today's semifinal short by a routine 6-1 6-1 victory in 59 minutes.

Maybe Stosur was exhausted from the two three-setters she played on Friday, but whatever the reason may be, the 2008 Charleston champion Serena held her serve throughout the match, hit 7 aces to Stosur's 3, 29 winners to Stosur's 7, while committing only 6 unforced errors more, 15 to 9.

Serena's opponent in the final will be the winner of the match between Polona Hercog and Lucie Safarova, which is currently in progress. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

For the celebration of the 5th birthday of Women's Tennis Blog we organized a contest with a valuable glittery prize – a necklace with a tennis ball pendant adored by Swarovski crystals. The beautiful prize is a present of Emily Austin, a jewelery designer situated in Scottsdale, Arizona. Emily customizes jewelry and her selection includes more than 100 Swarovski colors. In addition, Emily has special collections dedicated to sports, such as tennis, yoga, football and golf.

Your task in the contest was to give correct answer to question "How many posts have been published on Women's Tennis Blog so far?". The correct answer was option No. 2, 2600-2800 posts. You could easily determine that by going to the bottom of the page, where by clicking "last" you could see that Women's Tennis Blog had 278 pages. Multiply that by ten posts per page and you get the correct answer. Also, you needed to find a friend to leave a comment on the Women's Tennis Fans page on Facebook explaining why you should win, preferably in a fun way. The winner selection process was random.

Now I have the pleasure of announcing the winner of the necklace *drumroll*:

LILLY LI!

Lilly Li correctly answered the question and her friend commented on Facebook: Lily Li should receive the necklace because almost everything that she owns has something to do with tennis : tennis-designed shorts, undergarments, bow, toothbrush, cup, bed sheets, blanket . . . She needs a necklace that is tennis related, of course

Congratulations, Lily Li!

I would like to thank all of you who participated in the contest. I hope that those of you who didn't win this time will have more luck in my future contests. Don't lose hope! Also, I would like to thank you for fun Facebook comments, especially Kartik for his song about Women's Tennis Blog:

WTB is 5, and it is cruising
And is celebrating with bling
Sounds like quite the thing

Plus, I been around since the beginning
And I seem to be the only one to do the right answering

Which is why I should be the one winning :-p

Cheers – mucho love,

Kartik

Thank you all once again for participating, and thank you, Emily, for providing me with the wonderful prize. I'm looking forward to new celebrations and contests on Women's Tennis Blog.