Serena's 10th Slam Moves Her Back To No. 1

Serena Williams' 6-0, 6-3 rout of Dinara Safina yesterday earned her a 10th Grand Slam title, a fourth Australian Open title and the world No. 1-ranking. She was so dominant that Ms. Safina, a 22-year-old Russian playing in her second major final, didn't feel worthy of being on the same court. "Serena was too good ... I was just a ballboy on the court today," said Ms. Safina, the 2008 French Open runner-up.

Ms. Williams' win at the U.S. Open in September gave her the No. 1 ranking for the following four weeks, her first stint at the top since a 57-week stretch from July 2002. She started this year at No. 2 and slowly worked her way through the Australian Open. She struggled with her serve at times and had to fend off Svetlana Kuznetsova in the quarterfinals. "I was playing lazy tennis in the beginning and I was doubting myself," said Ms. Williams. "I'll thank my mom for hanging in there this week. The first week was tough, but we got through it."

She lifted herself in the semis to snap Olympic champion Elena Dementieva's 15-match winning streak and was overpowering from the first game of the final, losing only eight points and winning 18 of the last 20 in the 22-minute first set.