WTA Adelaide International: Bencic beats Kasatkina to win seventh singles title
The Swiss woman will return to the top 10 in the new rankings next week
Swiss Belinda Bencic, the No 8 seed, defeated Russian Daria Kasatkina, the No 5 seed, in convincing fashion to win the WTA Adelaide International tournament at the Memorial Drive Tennis Park on Saturday.
The reigning Olympic singles gold medallist, Bencic needed only one hour and eight minutes to beat Kasatkina 6-0, 6-2 to lift the seventh WTA singles title of her career.
With the title, the Swiss woman will return to the top 10 next week, at No 10 in the new rankings while Kasatkina will remain at No 8.
The win also ties the head-to-head record between the two players at 3-3.
Ahead of her win on Saturday, Bencic had beaten Spanish wildcard Garbine Muguruza (6-3, 6-4), Russian qualifier Anna Kalinskaya (6-3, 6-3), Frenchwoman Caroline Garcia, the No 4 seed (6-2, 3-6, 6-4) and Russian Veronika Kudermetova, the No 6 seed (via a walkover).
Meanwhile, Kasatkina scores wins over Czech Barbora Krejcikova (6-2, 7-5), Czech Petra Kvitova, the No 12 seed (6-3, 7-6 (3)) and Spaniard Paula Badosa, the No 9 seed (via a walkover) in the previous rounds of the Adelaide 2 tournament.
Both players now head to Melbourne for the Australian Open, where Bencic is the No.12 seed, and meets Viktoriya Tomova in the first round while Kasatkina is the No.8 seed and will open against Varvara Gracheva.