Gauff wins China Open final; Sinner rallies to advance in Shanghai

BEIJING (AP) — Coco Gauff won her second title this season with a lopsided 6-1, 6-3 victory over Karolina Muchova in the final of the China Open on Sunday.

Aged 20, the sixth-ranked U.S. player became the youngest China Open champion in 14 years. She is also the second American champion in Beijing, following Serena Williams’ title runs in 2004 and 2013.

“Honestly, it means a lot when I saw that the last American woman to win this was Serena Williams,” Gauff said. "Anytime my name is mentioned in whatever sentence hers is, it’s a huge honor.”

It was Gauff's eighth career title. She improved her record in tour finals to 8-1 and has now a 7-0 record in hard-court finals, a feat never achieved before in the Open Era.

“That’s pretty cool,” Gauff said. “I hope somebody else breaks it. I think records are meant to be broken, honestly."

Gauff, who defended her Auckland title earlier this season, wasted no time and took the opening set in just 31 minutes. She dropped just five points on her first serve, hit 24 winners and broke Muchova five times.

Gauff's win in Beijing improved her chances of qualifying for the WTA Finals featuring the eight top players for the third consecutive year. With her title, she will overtake Jessica Pegula to take the No. 5 spot ahead of the final WTA 1000 tournament of the season, the Wuhan Open starting Monday.

Shanghai Masters

Top-ranked Jannik Sinner overcame a one set deficit to rally to a 6-7 (3), 6-4, 6-2 win against Tomas Martin Etcheverry at the Shanghai Masters.

A night after winning his 250th career match with a straight-sets victory, the 23-year-old Italian faced a much sterner third-round examination against the No. 37-ranked Argentine under the roof inside Qizhong Forest Sports City Arena that hosted play due to rain.

Sinner will next play either No. 16-ranked Ben Shelton, who beat the Italian here last year, or Roberto Carballes Baena of Spain.

Etcheverry produced the shot of the night with a stunning drop volley to bring up set point in the first set tiebreak, which he converted to take the lead.

Sinner began to better find his range in the second and after trading breaks midway through the set, the Italian found another opportunity to level the match.

The momentum was all with Sinner in the third as he broke Etcheverry twice more to advance in 2 hours, 39 minutes under a retractable roof on the Qizhong Forest Sports City Arena. Due to heavy rain, play was restricted to the main court with all matches on outside courts postponed to Monday.

“It was a very tough match, physically (and) mentally, so I am very happy to get through this one,” said Sinner, who is chasing a seventh title this year.

Fifth-ranked Daniil Medvedev also came from behind for a 5-7, 6-4, 6-4 victory against Matteo Arnaldi to book his fourth-round berth against either 12th-ranked Stefanos Tsitsipas or Alexandre Muller.

The 28-year-old Medvedev was forced to dig deep to level the match after the Italian took a tight first set.

In the deciding set, Medvedev's experience and composure came to the fore as he clinched a vital break in the ninth game and held firm to close out the match in 2 hours, 44 minutes.

Second-ranked Carlos Alcaraz, who won the China Open on Wednesday for his fourth title of the year, defeated Chinese player Wu Yibing 7-6 (5), 6-3.

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AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis