CARSON, Calif. (AP) -- Flavia Pennetta took advantage of error-prone Samantha Stosur for a 6-4, 6-3 victory in the LA Women's Tennis Championships on Sunday, giving the Italian her second title of the year.
Pennetta followed up a three-set semifinal victory over Maria Sharapova by making quick work of Stosur, an Aussie doubles specialist who has yet to win a WTA Tour singles title. She lost in a final for the fifth time in her career.
Stosur's serve let her down with eight double faults. She was broken four times, including three in the second set when she connected on just 52 percent of her first serves.
Stosur also struggled with her forehand, which led to many of her 32 unforced errors. Pennetta made just 16 unforced errors and kept the Aussie on the run throughout.
Pennetta reached the final in Carson last year, losing to Dinara Safina, the world's top-ranked player who lost in the third round here.
She earned the only break of the first set in the seventh game, when her forehand hit the net cord and dropped on Stosur's side.
Stosur netted a forehand volley to set up match point and Pennetta closed it out on the next point with a forehand winner in the corner.
Pennetta earned $107,000 for what she called her "biggest win ever." The 27-year-old Italian's other title this year came last month at Palermo, and she was runner-up to Venus Williams at Acapulco in February.
She will rise two spots to No. 12 when the rankings are released Monday, one spot short of her career high of 11th.
Stosur earned $55,500 to close out the best two-week stretch of her singles career since 2005, when she made back-to-back finals. She reached the semifinals last week at Stanford and will be ranked a career-best No. 17.