Defending champion Lindsay Davenport pulverised Bulgaria's Magdalena Maleeva 6-4, 6-1 to win her fourth Pan Pacific Open title on Sunday.

The American took just 58 minutes to brush aside Maleeva, extending her winning streak at the Tokyo tournament to 12 matches since 2001.

There were swathes of empty seats at the indoor arena following top seed Venus Williams's withdrawal with a leg muscle strain on Friday.

"It would be nice to have beaten Venus in the final. It was unfortunate, but it's a pretty remarkable achievement to win a tournament four times," said Davenport, who also won the title in 1998, 2001 and 2003.

"It was just one of those weeks when everything seemed to go right," she added in referring to spending just three hours 22 minutes on court for her four matches as she stormed to her first title since winning in Tokyo last year.

Second seed Davenport seized control of the match in the seventh game of the first set, breaking Maleeva to take a 4-3 lead with a crunching forehand pass.

Davenport gained a double break for a 4-1 lead in the second set with an emphatic overhead smash to demoralise Maleeva, who had reached the final after fifth seed Chanda Rubin pulled out before their semi-final with a knee injury.

The victory was Davenport's 39th career title and ninth at a tier one tournament -- the top nine WTA Tour events second in prestige only to the four Grand Slams -- to equal Monica Seles and Conchita Martinez in first place among active players.

Davenport, a quarter-finalist at last month's Australian Open, earned $189,000 for her fourth victory in five Pan Pacific Open finals -- the 27-year-old lost to Japan's Kimiko Date on her first visit in 1995.

Martina Hingis was the only other player to win the title four times.

Maleeva put a positive spin on the result despite never threatening to match the feat of elder sister Manuela, who won the first two Pan Pacific Open tournaments in 1984 and 1985.

"Lindsay was too good today. I tried everything but nothing worked. I have no regrets," said the 28-year-old.