Coco Gauff clinched her biggest title of the 2024 season so far as she eased to a two-set victory over Karolina Muchova in the final of the China Open.
The 20-year-old American benefitted from a spate of mistakes from her 49th-ranked opponent to storm to a 6-1 6-3 win in just one hour and 16 minutes, clinching her second WTA 1000 crown in the process.
Gauff's emphatic victory saw her make lightning strike twice against Muchova, whom she had also defeated in Cincinnati last year for her first WTA 1000 triumph, but the Czech player had stunned some big names en route to Sunday's final.
Muchova upset Aryna Sabalenka in the quarter-finals and Qinwen Zheng to make it to the showpiece match, thereby becoming the lowest-ranked player to reach the final of the China Open, but she was 0-2 against Gauff from their previous head-to-heads.
The unfancied Czech immediately found herself on the back foot against an inspired Gauff, who won the first three games of the match and earned the double break for a 5-1 lead before Muchova briefly bit back in the seventh game.
The 28-year-old saved two set points and also fashioned a chance to break back against Gauff, but she could not convert that rare opportunity as Gauff made it third time lucky on the set points.
Gauff achieves unprecedented feat in China Open final
A few more serving mistakes were creeping into Gauff's game in the second set, though, and Muchova threatened an almighty fightback when she broke the former US Open champion for a 2-0 advantage.
However, the world number 49 could not back up her break as a resurgent Gauff won four games on the bounce, helped by a plethora of unforced errors from the Muchova racquet.
On the first of Gauff's two Championship points, the Czech overhit a backhand return to succumb to her second straight defeat to Gauff in WTA Finals, and she has now lost four top-level showpiece matches on the spin.
Meanwhile, Gauff has achieved an unprecedented feat on the WTA Tour, becoming the first-ever player to win each of her first seven finals on hard courts - a sequence that includes her US Open triumph from 2023.
The 20-year-old - who hit 24 winners compared to just eight unforced errors - has also inched ever closer to confirming a place in this year's WTA Finals, moving onto 4,968 points in fourth place behind Iga Swiatek (8,285), Sabalenka (8,091) and Elena Rybakina (4,981).
