France’s Alize Cornet has won the 2016 Hobart International with a flawless performance in today’s final.
The seventh seed defeated Canadian Eugenie Bouchard 6-1 6-2 in 67 minutes to win her fifth career title.
“It’s amazing, I can’t realise it yet actually,” Cornet said. “I was very focused for the whole tournament and the whole match today, now I can let go. This is over, I won the tournament, it’s my fifth title. It’s been two years that I haven’t won a title, so it feels great.”
Bouchard hit 34 unforced errors for the match to Cornet’s 17, a key difference. The Canadian struggled in the windy conditions, only holding serve once in the match.
“I was handling the wind much better than she did,” Cornet said. “I think she got a bit frustrated and she was trying to play winners too early in the points. I was patient, trying to be aggressive and playing the right shot at the right time and serving very well also. It all worked out my way today.”
After losing the first set, Bouchard took a toilet break and returned to win the first eight points of the second set to take an early lead. Cornet said she could tell Bouchard had refocused, but she didn’t panic.
“I was like don’t get tight, stay calm. You know what you have to do,” Cornet said. “I knew I could do it, I was not feeling nervous.”
Cornet’s consistency and scrambling ability was putting pressure on an increasingly frustrated and emotional Bouchard. The Frenchwoman won the next six games to close out the match and win the title. Her returning on serve was brilliant, not allowing Bouchard to dictate points and ever feel any control in the match.
The return of serve was Cornet’s biggest strength in this tournament. In her last three matches she only let her opponents hold a total of six times in seven sets.
A disappointed Bouchard admitted she had no answers.
“(It was a) rough day at the office. I didn’t have the energy and emotional control as I need too, to be able to perform well,” she said.
“I woke up and had personal family issues at home and things like that, and I couldn’t keep my focus. As soon as things started going down hill, I really couldn’t keep my emotions together.”