Romanian third seed Simona Halep continued her hot run of form on Sunday as she won the Budapest Grand Prix tennis tournament with a hard-fought three-set victory over Austria’s Yvonne Meusburger.

It was the 21-year-old’s third victory in a month and follows her maiden triumph on the WTA tour at the Nuremburg Open in June before winning at ‘s-Hertogenbosch one week later.

Meusberger, who came into the tournament ranked 112 in the world, will see her stock rise after levelling the match at one set all before running out of steam in the decider.

Halep broke her opponent’s serve nine times before prevailing 6-3 6-7 (7-9) 6-1.

She relied on well-placed drop shots in the third set.

“It was a very difficult match because Yvonne played very well, especially in the second set when I also made a lot of mistakes. Then I changed tactics, applied more drop shots and that worked.”

Halep has lost just once in 17 matches as she threatens to break into the world top 20.