(Adelaide) Switzerland’s Belinda Bencic defeated Russia’s Daria Kasatkina 6-0, 6-2 on Saturday to win the final of the Adelaide International Tennis 2, a preparatory tournament for the Australian Open, the first Grand Slam of the calendar year.
Bencic, 13e world player, needed barely an hour to take the measure of Kasatkina and win a sixth career title on the WTA Tour.
Bencic converted five of his seven break chances and won almost double the points of Kasatkina, ranked eighth in the world.
The two players had reached the grand final following the withdrawals of their respective opponents in the semi-finals.
Reigning Olympic champion, Bencic won her first tournament with Dmitry Tursunov, her new coach.
On the men’s side, South Korea’s Soonwoo Kwon, who lost in qualifying before entering the main draw through injury, beat Spain’s Roberto Bautista Agut 6-4, 3-6, 7 -6 (4).
Kwon trailed 2-0 in the ultimate set and had to overcome two breaks of service before winning.
The Australian Open will start Monday in Melbourne (Sunday night in Quebec).