It’s often hard to tell when a comeback trail will finish, but Serena Williams is certainly well on her way.

Competing in only her third tournament since winning the 13th Grand Slam title of her career at Wimbledon in 2010, Williams won the 2011 Bank of the West (BotW) Classic, which took place at Stanford’s Taube Family Tennis Stadium this past week.

“I’m really excited to have won here,” Williams said. “I haven’t won a tournament in forever. I put a lot of work into this week, and it has paid off.”

The title marks the first time Williams has won BotW, which is the oldest female-only professional tournament in the world. She did so in a convincing fashion, beating No. 9 Marion Bartoli 7-5, 6-1 in the Sunday final. This match was nothing like the last one between the two, when Bartoli knocked Williams out of Wimbledon in the fourth round 6-3, 7-6 (6).

The match only lasted an hour and 22 minutes. Williams quickly overpowered Bartoli, who has made it to the final three of the last four years and won only once, in 2009, against Serena’s sister Venus. Bartoli did keep things close in the first set, taking a 4-2 lead before she suffered a bruised bone in her hand.

The 29-year-old Williams flashed her signature powerful serves, recording 11 aces. At times serving straight into the sun, she was often forced to alter her first serve.

In a tournament that was filled with unexpected upsets, Williams looked strong throughout. In front of a packed house Friday evening, the much-anticipated quarterfinal matchup between Williams and No. 5 Maria Sharapova only took two sets with Serena winning 6-1, 6-3.

“It was a bad day, and I didn’t feel good on many parts of the game,” Sharapova said. “But I also need to step up and keep on going.”

The following day, Williams posted a 6-1, 6-2 victory against No. 26 Sabine Lisicki of Germany. The match took less than an hour as Williams recorded three aces and four break points.

The tournament victory had added emotion for Williams, especially after an 11-month layoff from tennis because of complications that resulted, in part, from a cut on her foot last July. The break dropped Williams’ ranking down to No. 169 in the world, but winning the BotW brought her back into the double digits at No. 79.

“[These smaller tournaments] absolutely mean a lot more than they did,” Williams said. “I am so grateful to have an opportunity to be healthy and be here.”

Other notable tennis players on campus were No. 18 Ana Ivanovic of Serbia, No. 14 Agnieska Radwanska of Poland and last year’s winner, Victoria Azarenka of Belarus.

Ivanovic was upset in the first round by Ayumi Morita of Japan 6-3, 7-5. Radwanska lost to Lisicki in the quarterfinals 7-6 (4), 2-6, 6-2.

Azarenka, ranked No. 4 in the world and hoping to repeat after beating Sharapova in the 2010 final, was upset in the singles tournament 4-6, 7-5, 6-2 by New Zealander Marina Erakovic. The victory was Erakovic’s first against a top-10 player.

Although she was unable to defend her singles title, Azarenka built upon her semifinal finish in last year’s doubles tournament, winning the title with her partner Maria Kirilenko.

In an exciting week of family events and autograph sessions, the fun was capped off with the audience singing happy birthday to Azarenka, whose birthday is July 31.

The Bank of the West Classic was the first stop on the 2011 Olympus U.S. Open Series, which will lead up to the U.S. Open in New York from Aug. 29 to Sept. 11.

Correction: An earlier version of this post misspelled the name “Ana Ivanokic” of Serbia. Her surname should be spelled Ivanovic.