Coco Gauff beats Karolina Muchova in straight sets to win China Open

SHANGHAI – Coco Gauff overpowered Karolina Muchova in straight sets to win the China Open on Oct 6 for her second title of the year and eighth overall.

The 20-year-old American and 2023 US Open champion stormed to a 6-1, 6-3 victory in 1hr 16min in Beijing.

After a disappointing few months by her standards, including surrendering her New York crown in the last 16, Gauff added the China Open to her triumph in Auckland in January.

The sixth-ranked Gauff, under a new coaching team in the Chinese capital after splitting with Brad Gilbert in September, wiped away tears at the end.

But she also had kind words for her opponent.

“I want to say congratulations to you, Karolina. It’s great to see you back on tour,” she said.

“You’re such an amazing player. Hopefully we play many more finals. I don’t wanna say I hope some go your way, but maybe against someone else they’ll go your way.

“It’s incredible to see how you’re able to manage your season after so many injuries. Hopefully you stay healthy for the rest of your career.”

It proved one match too far for Muchova, who at 49th in the world was the lowest-ranked finalist in the history of the prestigious WTA 1000 tournament.

Gauff made a fast start, breaking the Czech for a 2-0 lead in the first set and then holding her own serve without conceding a point. The young American was up 3-0 with barely 10 minutes on the clock.

The 28-year-old Muchova sent down an ace to get on the board, but Gauff was in the mood and her serve – her biggest problem of late – was firing.

Gauff had three break points in the sixth game and converted the first to streak to a 5-1 lead against a shell-shocked Muchova. She rattled off her third ace of the match to give her two set points.

Her serving wobbles momentarily returned, but she wrapped the first set up in 29 minutes on her third set point.

Muchova found her feet at the start of the second set and broke for a 2-0 lead, only for Gauff to break back immediately on the way to a comfortable win.

“It was really tough today. It just showed how great of an athlete you are,” the Czech said to Gauff.

Meanwhile, Aryna Sabalenka has set her sights on reclaiming the world No. 1 spot and can close the gap on Iga Swiatek with a good run at the Wuhan Open, which is returning on Oct 7 after a five-year absence.

Sabalenka is the top seed at Wuhan in the absence of Swiatek, who withdrew from the WTA 1000 tournament after announcing her split with her coach of three years, Tomasz Wiktorowski.

The Belarusian, who was upset in the quarter-finals in Beijing last week by Muchova to end a 15-match win streak, can become the first three-time winner at Wuhan.

But she said that she cannot afford to put pressure on herself.

“Of course this is something I really want to do (become No. 1), it is one of my goals,” said Sabalenka, who won the Australian Open and US Open in 2024.

“But I learnt in the past that if you focus on the rankings and defending points and all that kind of pressure, things can easily go wrong. So I prefer to focus on myself and when I’m on court I just try to bring my best tennis.”

In men’s tennis, world No. 1 Jannik Sinner said he needed a day off after pushing through his tiredness to come from a set down and beat Argentina’s Tomas Martin Etcheverry 6-7 (3-7), 6-4, 6-2 at the Shanghai Masters.

He will be joined in the last 16 by Daniil Medvedev, who also had to rally to overcome tenacious Italian Matteo Arnaldi 5-7, 6-4, 6-4, and Carlos Alcaraz, who downed China’s Wu Yibing 7-6 (7-5), 6-3.

A weary-looking Sinner dropped the first set on a tiebreak to the 37th-ranked Etcheverry, just three days after losing a 3hr 21min China Open final in Beijing to Alcaraz. But the 23-year-old recovered in the second, breaking his opponent twice to level the match before easing to victory.

“Tomorrow is one day off which I really need, I felt it physically today,” Sinner said. “I had some chances in the first set but couldn’t use them... I’m very happy with how I bounced back.” AFP, REUTERS