Coco Gauff masters Karolina Muchova again to win Beijing title

What a difference a few months makes. Coco Gauff captured the second WTA 1000 title of her career on Sunday in Beijing with a 6-1, 6-3 triumph over Karolina Muchova in the final of the China Open.

Gauff's 1 hour and 16-minute victory earned her a second title of 2024, and first since she triumphed at the ASB Classic in Auckland in the first week of the season. Her effort in Beijing marked the first event that Gauff contested since splitting with coach Brad Gilbert after the US Open, and with new coach Matt Daly.

"It was a tough tournament. I think today was obviously by far my best match in a while. I'm really happy with how I managed to play. Despite the way maybe I was starting the tournament playing, I still stuck in," Gauff said afterwards.

"I was super relaxed going in. I was just like, I don't know, this match is not going to change my life. When you go into matches like that, it's super relaxed. ... I knew regardless of the result today, I was proud. Honestly, I was just telling myself the whole match I'm proud of myself, how I was able to overcome and still work on things that I've been practicing on, too, and stick to it."

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Having beaten Muchova in straight sets in each of their previous meetings, a 3-0 start in the opener set the tone for Gauff in the match. She broke Muchova in a marathon second game, and bookened that with two holds at love. The American hit 10 winners to just three unforced errors in the first seven games, and won 94% of points behind her first serve, while the Czech posted the inverse of Gauff's numbers in her own winners-to-unforced errors tally.

Muchova's all-court tennis troubled Gauff only briefly, at the start of the second set. The former world No. 8, who topped US Open champion and No. 1 seed Aryna Sabalenka in the quarterfinals and Olympic gold medalist Zheng Qinwen in the semifinals, made a 2-0 start in it, but lost 11 straight points from 30-15 in the third game of the second set.

Gauff slammed the door from there: She lost just three points in her last three service games of the second set.

"You kicked my butt today ... again," Muchova joked with Gauff in the trophy presentation. "You must love to play against me! It was really tough today, and it just shows what a great athlete you are."

Gauff is the first American to win the China Open singles title since Serena Williams in 2013, and is now 8-1 in her career in WTA finals. Muchova drops to 1-5 in her career in tour-level finals.