British women’s No. 1 Katie Boulter was comprehensively beaten 6-1, 6-2 by top seed Diana Shnaider in the Hong Kong Open final at the Victoria Park Tennis Centre on Sunday.
Boulter was seeking to win her third WTA title of the year but came up short against her 20-year-old opponent.
Despite the defeat, the fine form Boulter has showed in Asia — she also reached the semifinals of the Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo last week — has seen her break into the top 25 in the world rankings for the first time in her career.
The Brit was no match for Shnaider in the opening stages of the match as the Russian left-hander raced into a 5-0 lead that she eventually converted when Boulter made her 10th unforced error of the set.
Shnaider made similarly light work of the second set, offering Boulter no way back into a contest with a succession of eye-catching forehand winners up the line.
The Russian’s triumph was her fourth WTA title and fourth top-level crown of the year, having already won the Bad Homburg Open, Hua Hin Championships and Budapest Grand Prix.
