(CNN) -- Italy's Flavia Pennetta beat Samantha Stosur of Australia 6-4 6-3 to win the WTA tournament in Los Angeles, her eighth career title.
Pennetta made no mistake to claim the eighth title of her WTA career.
10th seed Pennetta played the best tennis of her life at the Premier-level tournament, beating Nadia Petrova and Vera Zvonareva before seeing off Maria Sharapova in the semifinals.
Stosur had come into Sunday's match without dropping a set but is now 0-5 in finals after Pennetta proved the stronger despite her lengthy battle to get past Sharapova.
She quickly took a one-set lead and immediately broke Stosur again to take a 3-1 lead in the second set.
The Australian 13th seed bravely hit back to level by claming Pennetta's service, but a further break saw Penetta claim a deserved victory.
"I think my serve was very good today. Almost all week it helped me a lot in the important points," Pennetta told the official WTA Tour Web site www.wtatour.com.
"When I was aggressive I won the points today. That was a big step for me to improve my game. I've played a few finals before. I was ready to play the final today."
It was only Pennetta's second title on hardcourts and continued her fine form after winning on clay in Palermo before heading to the United States for the build-up to the U.S. Open.
The tournament was marked by upsets with world number one and defending champion Dinara Safina crashing out to Zheng Jie of China.
Sharapova also showed improved form as she continues her comeback after shoulder surgery, beating third seed Victoria Azarenka en route to the last four, where she lost to Pennetta, 6-2 4-6 6-3.
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