Elena Rybakina's Brisbane title came so easily that she will head to Adelaide seeking more match time to fine-tune her Australian Open assault.
The Kazakh will move up a place to world No.3 after thumping Belarusian world No.2 Aryna Sabalenka 6-0 6-3 on Sunday to win her sixth career title at the Brisbane International.
Battling the flu on arrival, the 24-year-old surprised herself with the ease of her path to the title, particularly against Sabalenka who boasted a 5-2 head-to-head edge and beat her in last year's Australian Open final.
The Moscow-born Kazakh spent just four hours and 52 minutes on court in five matches, confirming afterwards she would fly to Adelaide to be top seed in the final Open tune-up event.
"The plan is to go to Adelaide because this week I played really well ... (but) I didn't have enough hours, which we wanted," Rybakina said.
"This week was a bit unexpected, like, with the result."
The 2022 Wimbledon champion was relegated to court 13 in her first-round encounter at Melbourne Park last year before coming within one set of winning the title.
"I hope I'm going to start on the big court this year," she said.
"I was a bit upset why I'm playing on that court, not on another one.
"But now I don't really care."
Sabalenka had stormed into the final in similarly impressive form but, after some early frustrations, could only laugh at the one-sided nature of the contest.
The Belarusian made 25 unforced errors but they came from pushing the limits against a rival that had terrific rhythm on serve and great depth on her own groundstrokes.
Sabalenka jokingly celebrated winning a point in the first game of the second set, then kissed her hand and saluted the sky when she finally got on the board in the ninth game of the match.
"I don't know where to start ... that was an interesting match; great job, thank you for those three games to at least make it look like a fight," Sabalenka laughed post-match.
"Couple of words to my team, you did a bad job today - 6-0 6-3, that's all your fault guys.
"It is how it is. We showed some great tennis and hopefully we'll do better at the Australian Open.
"I just wanted you (the crowd) to save your energy for the men's final."
Rybakina said Sabalenka's humour showed she wouldn't be fazed ahead of a potential Melbourne Park final rematch.
"She's a really funny girl ... first week of the season, not everybody is catching their form yet," she said.
"We have seen when Aryna was not playing the greatest.
"She had many double-faults two years ago, but then she catch the form, and last year was amazing.
"I don't think one result can affect much."
