Coco Gauff matches Serena Williams with Beijing title: 'A huge honor'

Coco Gauff became just the second American to win the China Open women's singles title on Sunday, beating two-time US Open semifinalist Karolina Muchova, 6-1, 6-3, to claim her biggest trophy of 2024. In doing so, Gauff joined Serena Williams as the only American champs in Beijing.

"Honestly, it means a lot when I saw that the last American woman to win this was Serena Williams," said the fourth-seeded Gauff, who opened her season with a title in Auckland. "Any time my name is mentioned in whatever sentence hers is, it's a huge honor."

The 20-year-old Gauff is the youngest Beijing champ in 14 years and is now a perfect 7-0 in hard-court finals on the WTA Tour and at Grand Slams. The China Open title is Gauff's second at the WTA 1000 level; she also won Cincinnati last year, again beating Muchova in the final, before backing that up with her first Grand Slam crown at the 2023 US Open.

After battling back from a set down to advance past Naomi Osaka, Yulia Starodubsteva and Paula Badosa, Gauff was in command from the start in the final. She was especially dominant on first-serve, winning 85% of those points and firing six aces while dropping serve just once.

"Today I just felt on, even from the first game," Gauff said after hitting 24 winners. "I had that feeling that I felt last year [in Cincinnati], too. Sometimes you just wake up and you're like, 'Today is my day.' There's no science behind it. I think that's just when I played her.

Gauff was playing in her first tournament with her new coaching team of Jean-Christophe Faurel and Matt Daly, having split with Brad Gilbert after the US Open. Initially, she planned to skip Beijing in order to complete a longer training block with her new team. Instead, Gauff made the executive decision to compete.

"I kind of told my team I wanted to play Beijing," she said in a wtatennis.com interview. "We were planning on just coming to Wuhan. I just felt like I needed to play, have fun. I enjoy Beijing."

Even with the title, Gauff was quick to caution that her game remains a work in progress: "A lot of times people forget that I'm still in the developmental phase of my career and nothing is going to be great," she explained. "Most of the people doing well are 25 and older in the Top 10, maybe with the exception of Iga [Swiatek]. We have a long way to go and I still have a lot that I need to work on and I'm proud of myself thus far.