The American world number one put to bed a relatively lacklustre final at Flushing Meadows to record her 18th Grand Slam title victory, putting her joint fourth alongside tennis legends Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert in the list of all-time Grand Slam winners.

The victory ensured Williams a first Grand Slam title of 2014 after failing to make it past the fourth round in her three previous efforts.

"It was a really wonderful feeling," said Williams.

"I couldn't have finished things in a better way.

"It is a pleasure for me to win here, I am really emotional.

"I couldn't ask to do it at a better place."

The 6-3, 6-3 victory maintained Williams' record of not dropping a single set over the two-week tournament, with three games the most the American has given away in any set across the Championship.

The match itself is not one that will go down in history as both players struggled to hold serve in the opening set.

The world number one was having the better of the running, however, as she surged to a 5-2 lead, despite a first serve percentage of below 30 at one point in the set.

Both Serena Williams and Caroline Wozniacki struggled to hold serve in the opening set, however, Williams proved the stronger in open play as she powered to a sixth US Open title and 18th Grand Slam win ©Getty Images


At 5-2 down, the world number 10 fought hard to erase a set point and hold serve but her efforts fell in vein in the next game as Williams struck a strong backhand winner to claim the opener 6-3.

The American continued her dominance by breaking Wozniacki to open up the second set, but the Dane refused to go quietly.

She managed to draw errors from Williams by running down shots that would be winners against most and began to up her first service percentage.

Unfortunately for Wozniacki, Williams also found the range on her first serve, upping her percentage from 41 to 70, and began to produce routine service holds.

With Wozniacki serving to stay in the match at 3-5, a forehand winner from Williams set up Championship point.

A backhand sent long by Wozniacki after 75 minutes of play brought Williams to the ground and the crowd to its feet as the number seed won her third straight US Open title and sixth in total.

Following her victory, the number one seed collected $3 million (£1.86 million/€2.32 million), plus an additional $1 million (£620,000/€770,000) bonus for winning the Emirates Airline US Open Series this summer, making her $4 million (£2.48 million/€3.09 million) cheque the largest winner's purse in tennis history.

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