Coco Gauff beats Karolina Muchova on straight sets to win China Open title

Oct 6, 2024 - 16:34

China Open,

Sunday, 6 October, 2024

McCreadie Andias

Coco Gauff has just won the WTA 1000 again after beating Karolina Muchova in the final of the 2024 China Open.

Coco Gauff claims double sets at 6-1 6-3 in the final to win her 8th WTA career title.

The 20-year bounced back after failing to defend her trophies at the Cincinnati Open and the US Open, and she couldn't defend her Citi Open title either, as she competed at the Paris Olympics.

Gauff lost to Emma Navarro at the Quater Finals of the US Open.

She parted ways with her coach Brad Gilbert and appointed new coach, Matt Daly. The duo's first tournament together was the 2024 China Open in Beijing and it was a wonderful debut.

Gauff bested Clara Burel and Katie Boulter in the first two rounds without any major issues. She was then helped by Naomi Osaka's retirement and had to come back from a set down against Yuliia Starodubtseva and Paula Badosa.

Still, she did all of that and found herself in the final of the WTA 1000 tournament against Karolina Muchova. The Czech player had a great tournament herself, beating the top seed Aryna Sabalenka and also eliminating the home favorite Qinwen Zheng.

However, early in this match, she wasn't able to keep up. Gauff had an incredible start to the match. She won all of the first 12 points on her serve, hitting four aces in the opening set and winning 94% of rallies after her first serve.

It was a crushing performance from Gauff, who won the opening set in just 30 minutes, 6-1. Prior to the final match, she joked that she was given luck ahead of the tournament when visiting Forbidden City together with Carlos Alcaraz, and after it seemingly worked for the Spaniard, as Alcaraz won the title in Beijing, it seemed to be working for Gauff as well.

"We both made the final. We both went to the Forbidden City together. Somebody asked me at the beginning of the week if that would give us luck. So far, it's working. Hopefully, I can follow in Carlos' footsteps."