WTA

• Venus rallies past Zvonareva for season-ending title

  
  

  Doha, Qatar (Sports Network) - Venus Williams roared back from a set down to beat Russia's Vera Zvonareva for the title at the Sony Ericsson Championships.

  Williams rallied for a 6-7 (5-7), 6-0, 6-2 triumph to capture the season- ending event for the first time in her career.

  In her only two prior appearances, she lost in the semifinals.

  Five other times Williams had qualified for the event and withdrew.

  The $1.34 million first prize moved Williams ahead of Martina Navratilova for fourth on the all-time earnings list. Only Lindsay Davenport, Steffi Graf and sister Serena have won more prize money on the WTA Tour.

  Venus earned her 39th career title and third of 2008.

  She also won at Wimbledon and Zurich, and will finish the season sixth in the final rankings.

  Zvonareva, who was playing in her second season-ending event, will finish the year ranked seventh. She won a pair of tournaments this year, capturing titles in Prague and Guangzhou, and Sunday's loss marked her sixth runner-up finish of 2008.

  Williams improved to 6-1 all-time against Zvonareva, who won the first meeting between the two back at the 2003 French Open. Since that fourth-round win at Roland Garros, the Russian had never taken a set from the American.

  That changed Sunday.

  Zvonareva jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first set, but Williams managed to even the set at 5-5 with a break and it eventually went to a tiebreak.

  After Zvonareva won the first point, Williams reeled off five straight and appeared to take total command.

  Zvonareva, however, rebounded with the next six points -- including one on a double-fault by Williams that gave the Russian a set point which she quickly converted.

  Williams then completely dominated the second set, winning 27 of the 40 points played.

  She converted each of her three break points and saved the only one against her serve.

  After winning the first two games of the third set, Williams dropped her serve in the third game. She immediately regrouped with another break for a 3-1 lead and allowed Zvonareva to hold only once more before completing the comeback.

  11/09 12:27:45 ET