Home favourite Simona Halep wins Bucharest Open for second time

World number five Halep, 24, produced a near-flawless performance to brush aside her Latvian opponent in just 46 minutes and secure her second hometown title in three years.

Halep won close to 70 per cent of points on her serve and saved both break points she faced to race to victory without dropping a game.

The easy win was in contrast to Halep's semi-final, in which she needed more than two hours to come from a set and a break down before beating American Vania King 6-7 6-4 6-3.

Halep won the inaugural Bucharest Open in 2014, but did not enter the tournament last year.

World number 105 and local favourite Viktorija Golubic described her maiden WTA title win as "incredible" after upsetting third seed Kiki Bertens 4-6 6-3 6-4 in the final of the inaugural Ladies Championship in Gstaad, Switzerland.

Golubic, backed by a partisan home crowd, hit back from a set down to finally overcome her Dutch opponent, who had been forced to pull out of the doubles due to a calf injury, in two hours.

The Swiss dropped serve at 4-4 to lose the opening set, but broke Bertens four times in the second to level the match and stayed one step ahead in the decider before closing out the match.

"It was so tough when I lost the game at 4-4 (in the first set)," Golubic said after the match, quoted on wtatennis.com. "I missed a lot of shots and made too many presents for her. Also she forced me to do some errors."

Reflecting on her rapid progress, the 23-year-old added: "I t's really amazing.

"In March I qualified for Katowice and won one round - that was the first time in more than a year that I qualified for a WTA event.

"In 's-Hertogenbosch, I played quarter-finals. That was such a new experience too. From that point on I improved even more, and to be here now as a winner is a really incredible and amazing feeling."