There wan't a long way to go, Fran wraps it up 6-3 6-2.
In some ways it's a shame she doesn't play more grass events with there being so few on the calendar, but if she's winning titles, and 8 matches in a row on her favourite, then I guess why stop. Despite the lack of grass prep, she's surely got to be very likely for another Wimbledon QWC with this upturn in form and that perhaps looked unlikely 3 or 4 weeks ago.
It's another home player up next (following her R1 win) in the shape of qualifier Iryna Shymanovich.
I'm quite surprised they didn't give her a MDWC as she's just 21, the highest ranked player of all Belarusian's in the Q field and she reached the QF last week where she lost to the person Fran beat in the SF. They didn't have to play twice on Monday, but this will be her 6th match in 6 days which is pretty tough. Mind, when you see the likes of Azarenka, Sabalenka, Sasnovich and, until very recently, Lapko, all in the top 100, they probably know what they are doing when guiding careers.
But Fran has lost the second 7-5 5-7
There was a long 11th game on Fran's serve and she had 3 GPs but failed to take them, was broken eventually and that proved the set gone. It was a 16 pt game.