Tennis
ESPN staff 6y

Alize Cornet defeats Mandy Minella in Gstaad to win Swiss Open title

Tennis

Alize Cornet secured a sixth career singles title with a straight sets victory over Mandy Minella in the final of the Swiss Open at Gstaad.

The French no. 1 seed came through in a little over two hours winning 6-4, 7-6(6) to win her first title since January 2016.

The world no. 44 managed not to drop a set all week in Switzerland as she bounced back perfectly from a disappointing first round exit at Wimbledon earlier this month.

But it was not all plain sailing as Luxembourg's Minella fought hard in her first WTA singles final at the age of 32, eight months after giving birth to her first child.

Minella took an early lead with a break to make it 2-1 in the opening set but Cornet showed determination to fight back instantly after a flurry of break points.

Cornet -- who made the final after opponent Eugenie Bouchard retired hurt in Saturday's semifinal -- had more opportunities in her next return game and eventually broke again at the sixth time of asking to lead 4-2.

Undeterred, Minella stepped up the power of her ground-strokes to break back and make it 4-4 but Cornet upped the pressure as Minella fired a forehand wide in her next service game and the Frenchwoman made sure of the set with a drop shot winner.

Both players traded blows at the start of the second but Minella looked to be in control after she broke Cornet and then survived two break points to lead 5-3.

But when Minella served for the set Cornet produced a forehand winner and then forced a backhand error to break back instantly.

Moments later Minella was fighting for survival as Cornet made her way to two match points, but the world no. 665 -- who saved three quarters of the 20 break points she faced in the final -- stood up to the challenge and held on.

In the tie-breaker a double fault from Cornet left Minella with two more set points, but the French top seed showed her class with two stunning winners in response.

She finally made sure of victory and collapsed to the clay in delight as Minella made two errors on the forehand to decide the match.

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