Palermo Ladies Open: Irina-Camelia Begu quietens Lucia Bronzetti en route to title

Irina-Camelia Begu won the Palermo Ladies Open on Sunday with a 6-2, 6-2 win over Lucia Bronzetti. The Romanian needed 93 minutes to wrap up the win.

From start to finish, Begu gave no opportunity to Bronzetti to assert herself in the match.

Begu did drop her serve twice in the match – once across each set – but also secured three service breaks on the Italian's serve to keep herself comfortably placed in the match.

Of the two players, it was Bronzetti who put more first serves in but it was the eventual champion who won a higher margin of first-serve points – 67% to the latter's 51%.

In fact, in the first set, Begu won 80% of her first-serve points as compared to the 50% Bronzetti won. For the match, the Romanian finished with 63 points, 21 more than Bronzetti's 42.

The Palermo Ladies Open's the fifth title of Irina-Camelia Begu's career.

The 31-year-old’s last title before the Italian event came in her native event – the Bucharest Open – almost five years ago, in 2017. Following this victory, Begu's ranked 33rd in the world climbing 12 spots in the WTA rankings.

Her opponent, Lucia Bronzetti, meanwhile, gained 13 spots and reached a new career-high of no. 65 in the world.