BELARUSSIAN sixteenth ranked Aryna Sabalenka has moved up two spots after down top 10 Dutch talent, Kiki Bertens in the final of the Hengqin Life WTA Elite Trophy Zhuhai. It was Sabalenka’s third singles title of the year, remarkably all of which have come in China.

The Hengqin Life WTA Elite Trophy Zhuhai is a round robin tournament, which seeds 12 players into four groups of three, where each player plays each of the other group members. The winner of each group advances to the semi-finals, where a regular knockout phase resumes. In the final over the weekend, Sabalenka proved too good to win, 6-4 6-2 in 76 minutes of play, defying a 1-4 head-to-head with her opponent.

Both players had 14 unforced errors in the match in what could be described as scrappy at times, but it was Sabalenka’s clean winners – of which she produced 17 to Bertens’ 11 – which was the difference in the end. Having broken her opponent in the second game and advanced to 4-1 and then 5-2, before breaking Bertens once more in the final game of the match to seal the comfortable win.

While Sabalenka moved up two spots in the rankings, Bertens dropped two spots, moving below both Switzerland’s Belinda Bencic who moved up to seventh, and Serena Williams who maintained her ninth position. The good news for Bertens is she had almost 1000 points on eleventh ranked Johanna Konta, with American duo Sofia Kenin and Madison Keys next, and Sabalenka quickly closing the gap on them.