Australia's Li Tu and America's Asia Muhammad scored dominant wins in Sunday's Bendigo Pro Tour tennis finals.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Muhammad, the third seed, always looked in control in her 6-2, 6-4 women's singles final win over Austrlian seventh seed Olivia Gadecki.
Tu, the sixth seed, was even more impressive in his comfortable 6-3, 6-1 victory over countryman and second seed Andrew Harris.
Muhammad, 30, has been a regular visitor to Bendigo for the Bendigo International for the best part of a decade.
She finished runner-up in the Bendigo International in 2016 and finally got her hands on the winning trophy on Sunday.
Muhammad, ranked 175 in the world before Sunday's final, set the tone early by breaking Gadecki's serve in the opening game of the match.
She made it a double-break two games later to go 4-0 up before putting the first set to bed in 31 minutes.
Unforced errors hurt Gadecki badly in the first set. The 19-year-old found her range in the second set and put Muhammad under pressure with some fine groundstrokes from back of the court.
Muhammad's steadiness from the back of the court proved decisive and, despite some late jitters, she served out the second set 6-4 to win her third title of the year.
Tu's victory capped a successful week for the 25-year-old. The Bendigo title came on the back of him reaching a career-high world ranking of 495.
While Harris went into the final as the higher-ranked played, it was Tu who handled the occasion better.
Tu constantly put pressure on Harris' serve and broke him twice on his way to claiming the first set 6-3.
The second set was one-way traffic. Tu only lost two points on his serve for the set and broke Harris three times in a commanding 6-1 win.
It was a disappointing end for Harris, who had looked so impressive in not dropping a set leading into the final.
The players in the men's and women's draw now prepare for the second Pro Tour tournament in Bendigo.
Qualifying for both events started on Sunday and will continue on Monday, with the main draw action to start on Tuesday.
Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can access our trusted content:
- Bookmark bendigoadvertiser.com.au
- Make sure you are signed up for our breaking and regular headlines newsletters
- Follow us on Twitter @BgoAddy
- Follow us on Instagram @bendigoadvertiser
- Join us on Facebook
- Follow us on Google News