Brilliant Gauff bags China Open title

BEIJING:

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

The 20-year-old American and last year's US Open champion stormed to victory 6-1, 6-3 in one hour, 16 minutes in Beijing.

After a disappointing few months by her standards, including surrendering her New York crown in the last 16, Gauff adds 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 last month, wiped away tears at the end.

It proved one match too far for Muchova, who at 49 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.

Gauff 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, chasing only the second title of her career, dumped out top seed Aryna Sabalenka in the quarter-finals and then beat Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen.

Last year's French Open finalist 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.

Sabalenka targets Wuhan hat-trick

Aryna Sabalenka has set her sights on reclaiming the world number one spot and can close the gap on Iga Swiatek with a good run at the Wuhan Open, which is returning on Monday 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.

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

But Sabalenka said Sunday in Wuhan that she cannot afford to put pressure on herself.

"Of course this is something I really want to do (become number one), it is one of my goals," said the Belarusian, who won the Australian and US Opens this year.

"But I learned 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 and fight for every point.

"If I'll be able to bring my best tennis I know that I can become world number one."

The Wuhan Open is back on the WTA calendar for the first time since 2019, before the Covid pandemic.

The 56-player main draw begins on Monday featuring seven of the world's top 10.

Sabalenka clinched back-to-back Wuhan titles in 2018 and 2019.

She has a bye into the second round and will begin her quest for a hat-trick against Filipina wildcard Alexandra Eala or Czech top-40 player Katerina Siniakova.

"It's been a while since I've been here and I remember the first time winning Wuhan was a very special moment," said Sabalenka.

"Winning it two times in a row, that was very special. I was really sad that I couldn't come back the following year.

"And now coming back, everything feels like home and I have really beautiful memories from the past. I really hope I can replicate my result from 2019."

Sabalenka, who claimed a third career Grand Slam title at the US Open last month, is just over 1,000 points behind Swiatek in the rankings.

The battle to be on the summit at the year-end is likely to go down to the wire at the season-ending WTA Finals in Riyadh next month. AFP