CHARLESTON: German 16th seed Sabine Lisicki clinched her first career title on Sunday with her big serve, high-tempo game giving her a 6-2, 6-4 win over Danish fifth seed Caroline Wozniacki.

Lisicki had knocked out Venus Williams in the third round and the 19-year-old proved it was no fluke with a deserved victory in the one million dollar tournament over her 18-year-old opponent who had taken the Ponte Vedra Beach claycourt trophy last weekend.

The German had lost her only previous final, in Tashkent last year, and she showed some signs of nerves on Sunday as she tried to close out the final needing six match points before she could celebrate victory.

"I really couldn't believe I won, because I didn't use my first match points. When I finally won - I don't know which match point it was, seventh, eighth, it felt like 30th - I was so happy," Lisicki said.

"I've worked so hard the last couple of weeks and months, and it's finally paying off," she added. "I knew I had the game to beat those players, and now I think I'm more mature to win the whole tournament."

Wozniacki, who needed nearly three hours to defeat top-seeded Russian Elena Dementieva in the semi-finals, looked like she was feeling the after-effects on Sunday.

"I wasn't moving well today like I have been in other tournaments, but Sabine was playing really well, attacking and not making a lot of errors," she said. "Sabine played really well. Congratulations to her."

After beating Williams with an impressive display of big serves and bigger groundstrokes, Lisicki encountered little resistance in her next two matches.

She beat Elena Vesnina in the quarter-finals and sixth-seeded Marion Bartoli of France in the semi-finals.

Lisicki's booming serve was in evidence again on Sunday, when she notched eight aces against Wozniacki.

She is expected to move up to 47 in the world from her current spot of 63 when the new WTA rankings are released on Monday.

She became the lowest-ranked player to win the Charleston title. The biggest outsider to win here previously was Iva Majoli, who was ranked 58th when she lifted the trophy in 2002