Fourth-seeded Coco Gauff beat Karolina Muchova of the Czech Republic 6-1, 6-3 to lift the women's singles title at the China Open on Sunday. The 20-year-old American wrapped up her victory in only one hour and 16 minutes.
"It was a tough tournament. I am really happy with how I managed to play today. I was super relaxed going in and just telling myself in the whole match I was able to work on things that I have been practicing on and stick to it," said Gauff.
Coco Gauff (L) and Karolina Muchova pose with their trophies at the China Open award ceremony in Beijing, China, October 6, 2024. /CFP
This was the second title of the season for the 2023 U.S. Open champion, who had not won on Tour since winning in Auckland in January, and failed to defend her title exiting in the round of 16 in New York last month.
"I had some rest since the US Open. I just practiced a little bit and picked up pretty fast with the match," said Muchova. "She [Gauff] served really good. It was actually one of the worst matches that I played here. She pushed me and made me do those errors."
Both players are playing back-to-back tournaments in China, as they are scheduled to start their campaigns soon at the Wuhan Open in central China on Tuesday.
Also on Sunday, Italian pair Jasmine Paolini and Sara Errani beat Chan Hao-Ching of Chinese Taipei and Veronika Kudermetova of Russia in the women's doubles final 6-4, 6-4.
"I think we did a great job. We tried to stay there every point. We put so much effort into this year to play doubles, so we are just happy. It's always special to win a tournament," said French Open singles runner-up Paolini.