World number nine Safina was too strong for Pennetta

Dinara Safina's excellent season continued as she clinched the East West Bank Classic title in Los Angeles.

The fourth seed, who reached the French Open final, beat surprise finalist Flavia Pennetta 6-4 6-2 to win her second title of the year.

Pennetta was playing in her 13th singles final but was no match for the big-hitting Russian.

Safina ended Jelena Jankovic's hopes of becoming world number one in the previous round.

And the 22-year-old's seventh career victory on the WTA Tour resulted in her climbing from ninth in the world rankings to a career-best eighth.

Safina, younger sister of Wimbledon semi-finalist Marat Safin, said: "I wanted so badly to win the final and before the match I told my coach, 'I'm nervous, I really want to get this final'.

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"It happens like that sometimes. One match, you pull it out somehow and you start the next day to play better. That's what happened. I was just playing better and better."

Safina, who was appearing in her fourth final in five tournaments, broke Pennetta in the 10th game to take the first set and then went on to win three games in a row to take a 5-1 lead in the second before closing in on victory.

"My serve wasn't working because she was very consistent and I was always nervous because I knew if I didn't make the first serve, with the second she was pushing the ball so hard," conceded Pennetta.