McCartney Kessler of the United States powered to her second career Hologic WTA Tour title on Saturday, outlasting No.2 seed Elise Mertens of Belgium 6-4, 3-6, 6-0 to win the Hobart International in her tournament debut.

Hobart: Scores | Draws | Order of play

In their first meeting, World No.67 Kessler needed 2 hours and 3 minutes to topple former Top 15 player Mertens, who won her first two career titles here in Hobart in 2017 and 2018 and was the runner-up to Emma Navarro last year.

Rising American: The last 12 months have seen Kessler's pro career flourish. Just one year ago, Kessler was ranked No.207 and making her Grand Slam main-draw debut in Melbourne, as the winner of the USTA's wild card into the Australian Open.

Since then, it has been only up for the 25-year-old American, who played collegiate tennis at the University of Florida. In a week-long span directly before the 2024 US Open, Kessler made her Top 100 debut and won her first tour-level title at the WTA 250 event in Cleveland.

Now, the week before this year's Australian Open, Kessler has doubled her title total with another WTA 250 trophy. This time around, she finds herself on the brink of her Top 50 debut.

Must See

Tale of the match: It was a master class of aggressive tennis from Kessler to start play. She fired 15 winners in the first set, including an ace on set point. Mertens could only muster up two winners in the opener.

However, Mertens got through an 11-minute, eight-deuce game to start the second set, and she used that to turn the momentum back in her favor. Mertens leveled the match at one set apiece, edging closer to improving her excellent career win-loss record in Hobart to 20-3.

But just as quickly, Kessler regained control in the final set with another blistering bevy of groundstroke stunners. Kessler cruised through the decider to take down the second seed, and the American finished the encounter with 44 winners in total.

Off to the major in Melbourne: Both Kessler and Mertens will now head to Melbourne for the first round of the year's first Grand Slam, the Australian Open. For her Melbourne opener, Kessler will take on China's Zhang Shuai, an Australian Open quarterfinalist in 2016.

Mertens' career-best Grand Slam performance was a semifinal run at the 2018 Australian Open, directly after she won her second straight Hobart title. The Belgian, who is the highest-ranked unseeded player in this year's main draw, will face Swiss qualifier Viktorija Golubic in the first round.

Jiang, Wu win doubles title: Later on Saturday, No.4 seeds Jiang Xinyu of China and Chinese Taipei's Wu Fang-hsien claimed the Hobart International doubles title. They defeated unseeded Monica Niculescu of Romania and Hungary's Fanny Stollar 6-1, 7-6(6) in the final.

After cruising through the first set, Jiang and Wu needed three championship points in a tight tiebreak before finishing off the victory in an hour and a quarter.

Overall, this is Jiang's fourth career WTA doubles title, and the second for Wu. This is their first title as a pairing; they previously teamed up to reach the WTA 500 final in Washington D.C. last year.