Cori Coco Gauff (USA) and Karolina Muchova (Czech Republic) will play in the final of the WTA 1000 China Open tennis tournament in Beijing. Cori Coco Gauff made a comeback against Paula Badosa (Spain) and prevailed after 2-1 (4:6, 6:4, 6:2).
The 20-year-old Cori Coco Gauff made a poor start to the match, losing the first set in 59 minutes. Paula Badosa led by 3:1 in the second set as well, but the US Open champion made a comeback to level at 4:4 before winning the final two games of the set.
Cori Coco Gauff broke even at 5:4 in the decisive third set. “I felt like I was playing well the whole match, but I made some unforced errors”, said the American on court after the win.
Karolina Muchova defeated the Paris 2024 Olympic champion Qinwen Zheng (China) by 2-0 (6:3, 6:4) in an hour and 38 minutes on the court. It was another strong match for the Czech tennis player, who also eliminated the top-seeded Aryna Sabalenka (Belarus) in the quarter-finals of the tournament. Karolina Muchova made one break in both sets for the victory. She missed two match points at 5:3 in the second set at the service of the Chinese player, but then won the match on her serve.
Cori Coco Gauff and Karolina Muchova head-to-head balance is 2-0 in favor of the American player. She has won both of her previous encounters with their most recent encounter came in the semifinals of the 2023 US Open, with Gauff triumphing by 2-0 (6:4, 7:5).