Muguruza destroys Halep, Dimitrov downs Kyrgios in Cincinnati finals

Ohio, Aug 21 (IANS) Spanish tennis star Garbi?e Muguruza, the fourth seed, blasted past Romania's Simona Halep in the final at the Premier 5 tennis tourney in Cincinnati, wiping her rival from the court with back-to-back 6-1, 6-0 set wins.

Muguruza needed only 56 minutes to grab her second title so far this year, after coming out on top in Wimbledon, reports Efe.

This was also the first Premier 5 that she has won as a professional, taking home $522,450 in cash and 900 points in the WTA classification, where she is scrambling to become the world's No. 1 ranked woman.

The champion of Roland Garros in 2016 and Wimbledon earlier this year put on a perfect tennis clinic on Sunday afternoon to take the lead in the rankings for the first time this year in the march to the WTA finals in Singapore.

This is the 23-year-old Spaniard's third victory against Halep in their four confrontations as pros, and with the win she prevented the Romanian from becoming the new world No. 1 female.

The Czech Republic's Carolina Pliskova, whom Muguruza also beat 6-3, 6-2 in the semifinals round of Premier 5, retains the No. 1 slot.

Muguruza dominated the match against Halep at all times, never allowing her rival to develop her best shots, powerful blasts from the right deep into enemy territory.

Meanwhile, in men's action at Cincinnati on Sunday, Bulgaria's seventh-seeded Grigor Dimitrov downed Australia's Nick Kyrgios 6-3, 7-5 for the title.

It took the 26-year-old Dimitrov an hour and 25 minutes to win his first Masters 1,000 title, taking home $954,225 in cash and 1,000 points in the ATP classification, where he broke into the top 10 for the first time so far this year.

Meanwhile, Kyrgios, 22, who was also playing in his first Masters 1,000 final, received a check for $467,880 along with 600 points in the world classification, putting him among the top 20.

Kyrgios, who bounced top-seeded Rafael Nadal out of the tournament with a 6-2, 7-5 victory in their Friday night quarterfinal showdown, in the final could not rely on his decisive serve for the win, although he did fire 15 aces to Dimitrov's 6, but had 4 double faults to the Bulgarian's 5. Dimitrov, meanwhile, broke the Australian's service twice, once in each set.