POLAND’S Magda Linette has won her second career WTA Tour title in Thailand yesterday after running away with a straight sets win over Switzerland’s Leonie Kung in the final. The 28-year-old Pole came into the final with just one win – Bronx last year – to her name along with a maiden 125K title back in Ningbo, 2014. She came runner-up in Seoul last year as well, and it helped her reach a career-high 41st in the world.

It was equally as a remarkable story for the 19-year-old Swiss talent who reached her first ever WTA Tour final, starting the tournament at 283rd in the world, but making a number of huge upsets, including third seed Wang Qiang to reach the Hua Hin final. Both players now sit at career high rankings with Linette up to 33rd in the world having jumped nine places from her title win, while Kung is all the way up 155th – a whopping 128 spots higher. At 19, she has plenty of years ahead of her to continue to build her career.

Turning purely to the match, it was largely one-way traffic with Linette getting 6-3 6-2, using all of her extra experience to claim the win. The fifth seed was not as powerful on the serve as her younger opponent, but she was consistent, winning 82.8 per cent of her first serve points (compared to a very high 75 per cent), and more importantly winning 59.1 per cent of her second serve points. In total, Linette dropped just 14 points on serve, and recorded an elite 73.9 per cent of Kung’s second serve points as she converted three break point opportunities from six chances, while Kung could not capitalise on her only chance. Overall it might have been a comfortable win, but both players can hold their heads high after superb tournaments.