Russian teenager Svetlana Kuznetsova used her awesome forehand to beat compatriot Elena Dementieva and claim the US Open title.

The 19-year-old showed few nerves in her first Grand Slam final as she rolled to a 6-3 7-5 victory at Flushing Meadows on Saturday night.

The key factor in the match was Kuznetsova's massive forehand which she used to full effect on the Arthur Ashe Stadium to emerge a deserved winner.

Kuznetsova went for her shots from the outset. She played the more aggressive tennis and it paid dividends against the notoriously-weak Dementieva serve.

Kuznetsova, seeded nine, made a poor start dropping her serve in the very first game after a string of forehand errors.

But those errors were soon turning into winners as she immediately retrieved the break and went on to dominate the set, taking it 6-3 in just 29 minutes.

Dementieva improved in the second set and twice went a break up.

However, her weak serve was pounced upon on both occasions as she failed to convert the break.

And when Dementieva cracked in the 11th game, a double fault helping Kuznetsova to break, she sensed the game was up.

Kuznetsova soon had three match points and she took the second, producing a big second serve which her opponent was unable to return.

In her trophy acceptance speech, Kuznetsova thanked former champions Aranxta Sanchez-Vicario and Martina Navratilova, both of whom have played doubles with the Russian, for helping her achieve her success.

She revealed Navratilova had calmed her pre-match nerves.

"She said 'I won my first final, you can do it to'. Now I am so happy today to win this title."

On the third anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks in the US, Kuznetsova then dedicated her victory to the victims.

"A would like to dedicate this trophy to the people who died on September 11 and in Russia (in Beslan)," she told the packed crowd.

The former world junior number one becomes the third Russian Grand Slam winner of the season, following in the footsteps of Maria Sharapova at Wimbledon and Anastasia Myskina at the French Open.