Svitolina cruises to Brisbane title

Ukraine's Elina Svitolina has marched to the Brisbane International title with a dominant 6-2 6-1 rout of qualifier Aliaksandra Sasnovich.

Ukrainian tennis player Elina Svitolina

Ukraine's Elina Svitolina cruised to her 10th career title with a straight sets win in Brisbane. (AAP)

Dominant Brisbane International champion Elina Svitolina says her great form is no reason to rethink her approach to the Australian Open.

The new world No.4 cruised to her 10th career title on Saturday, sweeping aside qualifier Aliaksandra Sasnovich 6-2 6-1 in a one-sided decider.

The Ukranian third seed took advantage of an opponent playing her first top-level final, countering any brief resistance with some superb ball striking on Pat Rafter Arena to wrap things up in 65 minutes.

Due to jump from No.6 to No.4 in the world thanks to the Brisbane crown, Svitolina will enter as one of the Open's form players as she attempts to go beyond the third round in Melbourne for the first time.

While she had a season to remember last year, winning five titles and peaking at No.3 in the world, success at a major has eluded her.

But the newly-crowned Brisbane champion was quick to shoot down any suggestion this was her chance to break the drought, particularly given the continued absence of new mother Serena Williams.

"No, I don't look at the things in this way," she said.

"I just try to take, you know, this as one step that's forward.

"I don't have any pressure, you know, that I have to play well there. You know, it always can play a bad game on your mind."

Svitolina jumped to a 3-0 lead to start the rout before Sasnovich, of Belarus, found range with her dangerous backhand and briefly threatened to make a contest of it.

But Svitolina unleashed a backhand barrage of her own to break again and seal the first set, before running away with the second set to claim the crown and have her name engraved on the Evonne Goolagong Cawley trophy.

Having reached the decider, Sasnovich is projected to move inside the world's top 60 for the first time.

The 23-year-old extended an apology to the crowd after the one-sided affair.

But Sasnovich, who has been eating mushroom risotto from the same French restaurant all week, could still crack a joke after the loss.

"The risotto didn't help me yesterday to win this match," she said, confirming she was yet to lock in a favoured restaurant in Melbourne.

"I don't know why it's like this, why I play so bad ... sometimes it happen, I played some good matches and this one was bad."

Later in the night Dutch duo Kiki Bertens and Demi Schuurs combined to claim the women's doubles crown 7-5 6-2 over Andreja Klepac and Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez.


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Source: AAP



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