It has been an utterly superb week for
Jelena Ostapenko who seals
Adelaide International glory and heads into the
Australian Open back into the top 10 after almost six years after thrashing good friend,
Daria Kasatkina 6-3, 6-2 in the final.
Ostapenko seals a seventh career title and after good early season form will target a good run at the Australian Open which could easily see her face Iga Swiatek along the route who is currently 4-0 down in their respective head to head record and given the current form she is in, it could be another notch for the Latvian.
Ostapenko initially went 2-0 up in the tie with a break early on, but Kasatkina was back with a dominant break to make it 2-1. It went back and forth from there until 3-2 where Ostapenko took a break eventually. It was 40-15 and then went back and forth before she finally struck on her fourth break point and this broke the spirit of Kasatkina in the opener as Ostapenko took back to back comfortable service holds for the set 6-3.
It was back-to-back games as Kasatkina surrendered her serve early on in the second and Ostapenko struck again to go 4-1 up and towards the title. Albeit it wasn't as dominant for the moment as Kasatkina showed signs of life to hit back.
But Ostapenko hit the accelerator again and broke back edging through and despite spurning three match points, she eventually got over the line to stop any hopes of Kasatkina prolonging proceedings.