No. 2 seed Elise Mertens of Belgium eased to her ninth career WTA singles title on Sunday, defeating unseeded American Ann Li 6-1, 6-4 in the Singapore Tennis Open final.

Mertens needed 1 hour and 22 minutes to dismiss Li at the WTA 250 hard-court event, which is Singapore's first appearance on the Hologic WTA Tour calendar since its five-year run as the WTA Finals host city ended in 2018.

With the victory, former Top 15 player Mertens is a singles champion for the first time on tour since she won the Monastir title in October of 2023. Seven of her nine titles have come on hard court.

"All credit to [Li] for coming back in the second set, but I really, really wanted to win today," Mertens said, after the trophy ceremony.

Stellar season start: Mertens' season had already been going smoothly before she made it to Singapore. To kick off 2025, Mertens finished as runner-up at this year's Hobart International -- her second straight final at that event, which she also won in 2017 and 2018.

Now, Mertens exits Singapore with a 10-2 win-loss record for the year. It is Mertens' quickest path to her first 10 wins in a season since 2021, which she started with a 10-1 record.

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Match moments: Mertens' start to Sunday's final was just as good as her start to the year. The World No. 32 rolled through the first set, losing only two points on serve in the 28-minute opener.

But 85th-ranked Li, a WTA singles champion at 2021 Tenerife, made a match of it from 2-0 down in the second set. The American battled to her only break of the day at 2-1 and used her power hitting to stay on serve through 5-4.

However, Mertens stepped up at crunch time. At 5-4, 30-30, the Belgian used incredible defending to outlast Li in a grueling 23-shot rally and earn championship point. There, Li misfired into the net and Mertens sunk to the court in joy, a singles champion once more.

"It became really tight in the end," Mertens said. "It was a bit nerve-wracking. I had a good start, and I felt she was building up pretty well, so I’m very pleased that I could finish that."

Doubles review: Earlier on Sunday, No. 2 seeds Desirae Krawczyk of the United States and Giuliana Olmos of Mexico won the Singapore Tennis Open doubles title.

Krawczyk and Olmos defeated Chinese No. 3 seeds Wang Xinyu and Zheng Saisai 7-5, 6-0 in a 1-hour and 13-minute final. From a 5-5 deadlock, the champions reeled off the next eight games in a row to secure victory.

This marks Krawczyk's 12th career WTA doubles title, and Olmos' seventh. It is their first team title since they joined forces to pick up the Acapulco title in 2020.