For the fourth time in her career, Serena Williams will leave Australia as a champion. In a totally dominating performance on Saturday, she crushed Russian Dinara Safina in two straight sets of 6-0, 6-3. Talk about drama...

For Williams, it's also a 10th career Grand Slam singles title. And the way she hit the ball today on the central of the Rod Lever Arena, you can bet that it's not her last. In a display of power and more power, she took Safina easily to retake the top spot in women's tennis rankings.

It's also the first time in eight years that Serena has won back to back Major titles, her last one being the US Open this past September, when she knocked off Jelena Jankovic.

Considering the fact that Williams was out of the top 125 somewhere in 2006, this amazing return to glory is astonishing. And at age 27, you have to wonder what could have been, if it wasn't for those knee injuries and those bad career decisions. With the title, Williams also becomes one of six players to win 10 or more titles in the Grand Slams era.

Asked earlier this week about all those Russians in the semi-finals, Serena answered in a flash: ''It's just me against the Russians''. And after all is done, she can now say mission accomplished.

Did I forget? That winner's check was good for $1,3 millions US dollars. For Serena, that means a whole lot of shopping.