Petra Kvitova claimed her first title of 2016 with a dominant performance against Dominika Cibulkova in the Wuhan Open final.

The Czech hammered Simona Halep 6-1 6-2 in her semi-final on Friday, and she was even more impressive in Saturday's showdown.

It was Kvitova's second triumph at this Premier hard-court event in three years, after her victory over Eugenie Bouchard in 2014.

As a result, Kvitova is up to 12th in the race to reach the WTA Tour Finals in Singapore next month, while victory at the China Open in Beijing would see her leap to eighth, the final qualification berth.

Cibulkova, meanwhile, was perhaps left to rue a gruelling route to the final, which saw her go the distance in four of her five matches prior to Saturday's meeting, while she was forced to play both her last-16 and quarter-final ties in one day.

That schedule seemed to take its toll as Kvitova raced into a 4-0 lead in the opening set which took less than half an hour to complete.

The second set went much the way of the first, Kvitova romping to a 4-1 lead thanks to a pair of breaks.

She saved break point in the next game, emitting a primal scream of triumph, and victory was sealed when a tired looking Cibulkova sent a forehand into the net.

Kvitova had come through an epic third-round match with world number one Angelique Kerber, prevailing 6-7 (10-12) 7-5 6-4, and the Czech highlighted that success as a turning point.

"That match was pretty long, it was a great fight and I was mentally ready for every battle following that one," she said.

"It was a great win for me and to beat Angie gave me lots of confidence.

"Thankyou to the crowd for everything, you were cheering me unbelievably all week and I'm really happy that I can stand here as champion again."