Clijsters had lost her two previous meetings with Zvonareva, including a recent defeat at Wimbledon as the Russian made it through to her first Grand Slam final.

But it took Clijsters one minute less than an hour to dispatch the lacklustre Zvonareva at the US Open's Arthur Ashe Stadium in one of the most lopsided tennis finals in recent memory. Zvonareva, who had impressed coming into the final, disintegrated embarrassingly.

But Clijsters was generous about her defeated opponent, as she commented after the match, her two-year-old daughter Jada by her side : "A little bit of experience definitely helps. I told Vera it's tough when you lose, but I think it took me six or seven finals before I finally got one."

Clijsters' biggest challenge in New York came two days earlier in her semifinal, where she had to fight back from a set down to defeat Venus Williams 4-6, 7-6, 6-4. The 27-year-old from Bree, Limburg province, has now been the champion on her last three visits to New York. She did not play from 2006-2008 because of injury and motherhood.

Meanwhile, fellow Fleming Yanina Wickmayer was unable to replicate the form that had propelled her to the semifinals in New York last year, as she Kim Clijsters kisses the trophy after beating Vera Zvonareva at the US Open tennis tournament in New York collapsed in the fourth round, losing 0-6, 7-6 (2), 6-1 to Estonian Kaia Kanepi.

Wickmayer insisted the score was deceptive, however. "I won the set pretty easily on the score, but all the games were pretty tough, and I had to fight for every point," she said. "I knew the second set was going to be a tougher one. I had my chances in the second set and didn't take them."