Serena Williams clinched the second Grand Slam of her career on Saturday with a 7-5 6-3 victory over sister Venus in the French Open final at Roland Garros.

The American duo made history as the first sisters to contest a French Open title, but that was the only remarkable point of note in a forgettable match which saw both players struggle with their game in a jittery affair dominated by service breaks and unforced errors.

Serena, who lost out to Venus in the sisters' first ever Grand Slam final at the 2001 US Open, has long been in the shadow of her elder sister - currently the world's number one player - but she produced a determined and marginally more consistent game to take the match 7-5 6-3 in just over one hour, 30 minutes.

Venus, a four-time Grand Slam winner - including two Wimbledon titles, came into the match with a 5-2 record against Serena, but was unable to produce the authoritative and dominating tennis that has made her the more successful sibling.

Serena was delighted to pick up the second Grand Slam title win of her career to go with her US Open crown of 1999.

She said: "I am so happy to have won my second Grand Slam in three years, but obviously I am also a little bit sad for my sister."

Venus, who took a camera in among the press photographers to take pictures of Serena, added: "Hopefully I will get to the French Open final again next year. I don't think I served well, that's where the key of the match was.

"Serena played tough and I could not make all the shots I wanted."

After losing her serve in the opening game of the match Venus fell 2-0 behind as Serena used her athleticism to hold her serve with a clever mix of serve-volleying.

That was a wake-up call to Venus and she fought back brilliantly , winning the next four games in succession to take a 4-2 lead as her booming serve began to find its range.

Just as Venus looked to have turned the corner she let her serve slip again and Serena clinched a vital break in the seventh game.

Serena failed to take advantage, however, and contrived to lose her serve to love after framing a forehand in the next game to hand the momentum to her sister.

But Venus failed to capitalise and lost her service game in similar fashion when attempting to serve out the set at 5-3 up.

Serena then seized her chance and managed to move her game up a gear. She took the next four games to clinch the set to leave Venus reeling.

In the second set Serena broke Venus again immediately and won her serve to clinch a 2-0 lead, just as she had done in the first set.

That soon became a 3-0 lead when Venus handed her sister the momentum by losing her serve again with a double fault.

Venus broke back to win her first game of the set before she again double faulted to hand a 4-1 advantage to Serena, who now had victory in her sights.

Despite taking her sister's serve to come back to 4-3, Venus could not match Serena's firepower and movement around the court.

And the youngest of the Williams sisters finally sealed the match, converting the first of her two match points as Venus's forehand landed in the net.