Thriving in Beijing’s “respectful” atmosphere, Iga Swiatek books Liudmila Samsonova clash in final

“I feel like I can play freely again, so I’m really happy with that,” Iga Swiatek said after her 6-2, 6-3 win over Coco Gauff in Beijing on Saturday. “It’s been a while since I felt that way.”

Swiatek is making her first trip to China, and the conditions there have suited her. She likes the spaciousness of the center Court at the National Tennis Center, and the politeness of the fans. It’s just what she needed, it seems, to put the more frazzling atmospheres she faced in Cincinnati and New York, and the uncharacteristically shambolic performances she put on there and in Tokyo, behind her.

“You have more space on court behind you and on the side,” Swiatek said this week. “The stands are pretty great. You feel like there’s nothing bothering you when your opponent is tossing the ball. People are cheering really respectfully here. This for sure helps.”

“I think it fits my game and I’m taking a lot of confidence from that.”

Hearing those words is not likely to fill her opponents with the same confidence. Swiatek may not be ranked No. 1 at the moment, but she has been there long enough that she’s still likely the most feared ball-striker on the tour. If she’s on, there isn’t a whole lot anyone can do about it.

“Anyone” still includes Coco Gauff, it turns out. Since Wimbledon, the American had risen to take Swiatek’s place as the WTA’s most unbeatable player. She came into their semifinal having won 16 straight, and 21 of her last 22. Included in that streak was Gauff’s first career win over Swiatek, in Cincinnati, and her first Grand Slam title, at the US Open.

Swiatek may not have been out for “revenge” per se, but from the start she was clearly determined to bring her best against Gauff, and not have a repeat of her error-filled defeats from the summer. In the early going, she attacked Gauff’s best-known weakness, her forehand, in a forceful but measured way.

She broke early, and by the middle of the first set, Gauff was pressing and overthinking on her forehand. To keep up with Swiatek’s pace, Gauff felt the need to generate more of it of her own, and she started to look lost on the forehand side, unable to decide what she wanted to do with it. Even her footwork on the shot became tentative.

Gauff has said that even after beating top opponents like Swiatek she’ll wonder whether she really won the match, or her opponent just had a bad day and lost it. On Saturday, it looked like those self-doubts rose up quickly and never left her head. Swiatek made sure they stayed there by playing clean tennis. She made 75 percent of her first serves, won 80 percent of those points, hit 17 winners, and committed just six errors.

“I’m happy I switched my attitude after the US Open, and hopefully I’ll be able to keep it for as long as possible,” Swiatek said.

To win the Masters 1000 title in Beijing, and the $1.3 million champion’s check that comes with it, Swiatek will need to keep her new attitude alive for one more match, against Liudmila Samsonova. The Russian has had an impressive week of her own, taking out Jelena Ostapenko and Elena Rybakina, both in straight sets, in the quarters and semis.

Against Rybakina, Samsonova was the more powerful and resilient player. She hit 33 winners to just seven for her opponent, who is normally one of the game’s bigger hitters. Samsonova served for the first set at 5-4 and was broken, but she bounced back in time to reach a tiebreaker, which she won 9-7. She’s one of the sport’s most even-keel players, and that demeanor has helped take her to two Masters 1000 finals in the second half of this season.

Can it help her beat Swiatek? Their history says this final could go in two very different directions. In their first meeting, in Stuttgart last year, Samsonova pushed Swiatek deep into a third set before losing. But when they played again in Dubai in February, Swiatek blitzed her 6-1, 6-0.

I don’t think it will be that one-sided this time. But if Swiatek keeps playing freely, it probably won’t be as close as it was the first time.