Coco Gauff will play for her second career WTA 1000 title after coming from behind to defeat Spain’s Paula Badosa 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 in the semifinals of the China Open on Saturday.
Gauff, the No. 4 seed, was down a set and a break point before breaking Badosa’s serve twice and winning the final four games of the second set. She broke the 19th seed three more times in the third set as she capitalized on six of her 20 break opportunities on the match.
In the final on Sunday, Gauff will meet Karolina Muchova, who took down fifth-seeded Qinwen Zheng, the home-country favorite, in Beijing.
In her semifinal victory, Gauff entered the WTA record books, becoming the fifth player to win 20 matches at a WTA 1000 tournament before turning age 21. The only other women to achieve that mark are Victoria Azarenka (20 wins in 2009), Agnieszka Radwanska (20 in 2009), Caroline Wozniacki (27 in 2010) and Iga Swiatek (22 in 2022).
On Saturday, Badosa jumped to the lead after a 59-minute first set, which slowed in the eighth game. With Badosa serving 4-3, she fought off seven break points in a 10-deuce, 26-point service game before Gauff prevailed to even the set.
The tie was short-lived, however, as Badosa immediately broke back — one of four service breaks on the day — and then served out the set.
Badosa jumped to a 3-1 lead in the second set and had four break points in the fifth game but couldn’t cash in as Gauff took the game and eventually the second set.
Gauff won despite 11 double faults in the three sets.
“I feel like I was playing the right way the whole time, other than maybe a lot of double faults,” the 20-year-old said. “But other than that, I was playing the right way. Just missing sometimes. She was playing a very high level.
“I was just trying to get on the scoreboard and keep trying to get points on the scoreboard. They turned into games. I was trying to stay in the moment.”
Gauff finished with 38 winners and held Badosa to 24 winners.
Muchova needed one hour, 47 minutes to defeat Zheng, who won the gold medal at the Paris Olympics this summer. The 28-year old, building momentum as she comes back from a wrist injury, beat her second top-10 player on the week after taking out top-seeded Aryna Sabalenka in the quarterfinals.
“I’m just happy I was able to perform well against these big players and put up my game and that I could see that, yeah, I can face them, I can beat them,” Muchova said after the match.
This will be the second WTA 1000 final in her career after finishing as a runner-up to Gauff in Cincinnati last year. Gauff also defeated Muchova in the semifinals of the 2023 U.S. Open, which the American went on to win.
“We played a year ago, so we are different players today and tomorrow,” Muchova, a Czech, said. “I’ll just try to play my best and challenge her and hope for the best result tomorrow.”
–Field Level Media
