May 2, 2004 Venus Wins Warsaw WARSAW, Poland - One year after bowing out in the final due to an injury, Venus Williams finally captured the J&S Cup on Sunday in Warsaw, defeating Russia's Svetlana Kuznetsova in the championship match, 61 64 in just less than an hour. Last year, Williams seemed poised to win the Warsaw title before she was struck with a left abdominal muscle injury during the first set in the championship match against Amelie Mauresmo. She quickly dropped the second set and finally retired from the match at 3-0 in the third set. That same abdominal injury lingered on for the rest of the year, forcing Williams to miss the final five months of the 2003 season. This year, Williams played through Warsaw injury free and only dropped one set en route to her second straight WTA Tour title. "It has been a great tournament for me," Williams said. "It's very important for me to win here today at this stage of my career and so important to follow up my win at the Family Circle Cup. "I feel normal now. When I am not winning it's just abnormal for me. I tried not to be hard on myself with the matches I did not win at the start of the year." Williams was also able to avenge an earlier loss this year to Kuznetsova in the quarterfinals at Dubai. Kuznetsova rolled to a 62 63 victory against the former world No.1 in that match, but Williams insists her game has progressed since that meeting in February. "I wanted to show today that the girl in Dubai was not Venus Williams," Williams said. "I really wanted to take the title. We had strong points and long points. The longer the point the more I enjoyed it." With her championship victory, Williams adds Warsaw as her second consecutive WTA Tour title after winning the Family Circle Cup in Charleston three weeks ago. Including her week in Charleston and her two Fed Cup victories against Slovenia last weekend, Williams has now won 11 straight matches and will be considered a heavy favorite heading into this week's Tier I event in Berlin, the Ladies German Open. Williams, who will move up to No.11 in Monday's updated WTA Rankings, has now won 31 career titles. She defeated Fabiola Zuluaga, Magdalena Maleeva and No.3 seed Vera Zvonareva to reach the final. Kuznetsova falls to 0-3 this year in WTA Tour finals, having previously fallen to Justine Henin-Hardenne in Dubai and losing a three-set match to Anastasia Myskina the following week in Doha. "It was a tough match for me today," Kuznetsova said. "Venus played very well. She has done a good job of coming back after being out for such a long time and win two tournaments in a row. "My biggest mistake in the first set was that I was trying to hit the ball harder than Venus. I had no expectations going into this tournament but overall I am very happy because I've reached the final especially after having no coach with me this week." In doubles, the Italian tandem of Silvia Farina Elia and Francesca Schiavone won their first title as a team by defeating the Argentine duo of Gisela Dulko and Patricia Tarabini, 36 62 61. It was the second final of the year for Farina Elia and Schiavone, who fell to Barbara Schett and Patty Schnyder in the final of the Open Gaz de France in Paris earlier this year. The win was the ninth doubles title for Farina Elia and the second for Schiavone --

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