Jasmin Open: Mertens races past Paolini in final to win the trophy

Elise Mertens lifted the Jasmin Open trophy in emphatic style on Sunday, beating Italian Jasmine Paolini 6-3, 6-0 at the Skanes Family Hotel Monastir in Tunisia.

Top seed Paolini was unable to keep up with Mertens’ big-hitting in what was an anti-climactic, one-sided final. With the match lasting just one hour, 10 minutes, Paolini offered little resistance as Mertens broke Paolini’s serve on six occasions, while repelling six of seven break points on her own serve.

Earlier in the tournament, the top seed beaten Frenchwoman Alize Cornet (6-4, 6-2), Croat wildcard Petra Marcinko (6-4, 3-6, 6-2), No 6 seed Lucia Bronzetti (7-5, 7-6 (3)) and Ukrainian Lesia Tsurenko, the No 4 seed (6-2, 4-6, 6-2). Evidently, this took a lot out of her, as she wasn’t able to get up for another tough clash here against the second seed.

Mertens, on the other hand, had a much more straight forward path, defeating Filipino qualifier Alexandra Eala (7-5, 6-0), Belarusian Iryna Shymanovich (6-3, 6-2), Japanese Mai Hontama (6-3, 6-2) and Frenchwoman Clara Burel, the No 8 seed (6-2, 6-1) in the previous rounds of the Monastir tournament.