Elina Svitolina justified her billing as the Istanbul Cup's top seed by comprehensively beating Elise Mertens 6-2 6-4 in little over an hour in Sunday's final.

The pair had never played each other on the WTA Tour, but Svitolina was always in command en route to winning her third title of 2017.

Svitolina raced into a 5-0 lead in the opening set and, although Mertens briefly rallied, the Ukrainian broke for a third time in game eight to clinch the opener.

Mertens beat third seed Irina-Camelia Begu in the semi-finals, but found Svitolina to be altogether too powerful, the top seed breaking Mertens twice again early in the second set to lead 4-1.

The Belgian battled back with three straight games only for Svitolina to again find another level and break Mertens for a sixth time, ending the contest on her second match point to add to her previous 2017 wins at the Taiwan Open and the Dubai Tennis Championships.