Venus Williams won her third straight Pilot Pen title and her 20th career WTA trophy, beating fellow American Lindsay Davenport 7-6 (8-6) 6-4 in the final.

The third-seeded Williams improved her all-time record at this venue to 12-0 and looked in fine form in advance of her defence of the US Open, which starts on Monday.

After exchanging service breaks in the opening two games, Williams and the top-seeded Davenport settled for a first-set tie-break, which featured several long and tense rallies.

At 6-5, Davenport failed to hold her serve. That opened the door for Williams to win three straight points to clinch the opening set.

On her sixth break point of the second set, Williams finally broke Davenport, took a 5-4 lead and served out the match.

Davenport still leads her career series with Williams, 10-9, but Williams has won six of the last seven matches, including a 6-2 7-5 victory in the semi-finals of the Acura Classic at San Diego three weeks ago.