Serena Williams began the year in style, earns Brisbane glory

Serena Williams began the year in style as she stormed to victory in the final of the Brisbane International, while there were wins elsewhere for Agnieska Radwanska and Li Na.
Third seed Williams thrashed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia in a one-sided final, winning 6-2 6-1.
The devastating win gives Williams, the world number three, the perfect warm-up as she prepares to try and win her sixth Australian Open title.
In New Zealand, top seed Agnieszka Radwanska began her Australian Open preparations in winning style, accounting for 2010 champion Yanina Wickmayer to claim the Auckland Classictitle.
The world number four, who had not dropped a set throughout the tournament on the central Auckland courts, beat the 23-year-old Belgian 6-4 6-4 to claim her 11th WTA tour title.
Both players had trouble with their serve in the first set, with Wickmayer, who had problems with her ball toss in the windy conditions, broken in just the third game of the set.
The Belgian, however, managed to get back into the match when she broke to level at 4-4 only for Radwanska to break back immediately and then serve out to take the set in 45 minutes.
Wickmayer, who was told by her coach to start treating the game as a practice session and just go for her shots and not worry about the Pole’s retrieving ability, made a strong start in the second set taking a 2-0 lead.
Radwanska’s consistency under pressure, however, proved the telling point in the second set, constantly putting the ball back into play and waiting for the tall Belgian to make errors.
Wickmayer, whose emotions bubbled over as she became increasingly frustrated at the numerous errors she was committing, managed to delay the inevitable when she saved four match points on her own serve in the ninth game of the set, but was unable to stop Radwanska from sealing the title in the next game in 95 minutes.
In China top seed Li Na survived a mid-match meltdown to overcome Czech Klara Zakopalova 6-3 1-6 7-5 in the final of the inaugural Shenzhen Open, earning the Chinese a seventh career title.
World number seven Li, who won the 2011 French Open, looked in danger of disappointing the home fans after surrendering her serve in the first game of the deciding set.
Li, who beat fellow Chinese Peng Shuai 6-4 6-0 in Friday’s semi-finals, hit back to win five of the next six games but from 5-2 up allowed fifth seed Zakopalova to draw level at 5-5.
In a topsy-turvy finish encapsulating the match, Li collected herself to put together two solid games and give her a boost ahead of the Australian Open, which begins on Jan. 14.
Li reached the final of the year’s first grand slam in Melbourne in 2011 before going on to become China’s first major singles champion in Paris.
Saturday’s victory was Li’s second WTA title in China, following her breakthrough at Guangzhou in 2004 when she became the first Chinese winner on the women’s tour.
The $500,000 Shenzhen tournament became the third event in China on the WTA calendar for 2013 as tennis continues to expand in the country after Li’s recent success.