Coco Gauff won her second title this season with a lopsided 6-1, 6-3 victory over Karolina Muchova in the final of the China Open on Sunday.
Aged 20, the sixth-ranked U.S. player became the youngest China Open champion in 14 years. She is also the second American champion in Beijing, following Serena Williams’ title runs in 2004 and 2013.
It was Gauff’s eighth career title. She improved her record in tour finals to 8-1 and has now a 7-0 record in hard-court finals, a feat never achieved before in the Open Era.
Gauff, who defended her Auckland title earlier this season, wasted no time and took the opening set in just 31 minutes. She dropped just five points on her first serve, hit 24 winners and broke Muchova five times.
Gauff’s win in Beijing improved her chances of qualifying for the WTA Finals featuring the eight top players for the third consecutive year. With her title, she will overtake Jessica Pegula to take the No. 5 spot ahead of the final WTA 1000 tournament of the season, the Wuhan Open starting Monday.
Top-ranked Jannik Sinner overcame a one set deficit to rally to a 6-7 (3), 6-4, 6-2 win against Tomas Martin Etcheverry at the Shanghai Masters.
A night after winning his 250th career match with a straight-sets victory, the 23-year-old Italian faced a much sterner third-round examination against the No. 37-ranked Argentine under the roof inside Qizhong Forest Sports City Arena that hosted play due to rain.
Sinner will next play either No. 16-ranked Ben Shelton, who beat the Italian here last year, or Roberto Carballes Baena of Spain.
Etcheverry produced the shot of the night with a stunning drop volley to bring up set point in the first set tiebreak, which he converted to take the lead.
Sinner began to better find his range in the second and after trading breaks midway through the set, the Italian found another opportunity to level the match.