MONTERREY, Mexico (AP)—Marion Bartoli won her first WTA title in more than two years by beating Li Na 6-4, 6-3 to at the Monterrey Open on Sunday.
Bartoli, who has four titles, took six break points to win in 1 hour, 21 minutes.
Li conceded eight double faults in her first final in 14 months after returning from injury.
Bartoli, 13th in the world, was playing in her ninth career final.
Li took a 4-2 lead in the first set and was ahead 30-15 in her next service game before she lost three points in a row—two from double faults—to allow Bartoli to take control and win eight of the next nine games.
Bartoli held serve at 5-3 in the second set, then broke Li at love to complete the victory.
“I feel really good about how I played the whole week,” Bartoli said. “I had some tough matches, not just today but also in the semifinals. They were both two sets but tough.”
Since winning in Quebec City in late 2006, Bartoli had lost all four of her finals, including Wimbledon in 2007 and last January in Brisbane, Australia. She followed that with her first quarterfinals at the Australian Open, where she beat then-No. 1 Jelena Jankovic.
The unseeded Li, ranked 53rd, is a former top-20 player coming back from a right knee injury which kept her out of the Australian Open. She signaled her return to form at Monterrey by beating top-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland in the first round.
Earlier, Nathalie Dechy of France and Italy’s Mara Santangelo won the doubles title with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over the Czech pair Iveta Benesova and Barbora Zahlavova Strycova.