By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Saturday October 5, 2024

 

Coco Gauff and Karolina Mucho a will play for the crown at Beijing.

Photo Source: Getty

Coco Gauff rallied from a set and break down against Paula Badosa to reach her first final in Beijing – she will face Karolina Muchova of the Czech Republic for the title.



Gauff became the youngest woman to reach the Beijing final since Caroline Wozniacki in 2010. She will bid for her 8th WTA title. With her 20th WTA 1000 win of the season, Gauff becomes the fifth player to manage a 20-plus win season at the WTA 1000s before turning 21, joining Victoria Azarenka (20 in 2009), Agnieszka Radwanska (20 in 2009), Caroline Wozniacki (27 in 2010) and Iga Swiatek (22 in 2022), per the WTA.

She had to do it from the brink of extinction.

“It was a tough match. Paula has been playing some great tennis. Yeah, it was very physical. I was happy with how I was able to turn it around,” she said.

Down a set and a break, Gauff saved four break points to avoid going down a double break in set two, before rallying to break for four-all. She won 10 of the final 12 games in total.

“I feel like I was playing the right way the whole time, other than maybe a lot of double-faults. But other than that, I was playing the right way. Just missing sometimes. She was playing at a very high level,” Gauff said. “I was just trying to get on the scoreboard and keep trying to get points on the scoreboard. They turned into games.

“I was trying to stay in the moment.”



Gauff will face Muchova for the third time in Sunday’s final. The Czech backed up her upset of top seed Aryna Sabalenka by battling past China’s Zheng Qinwen 6-3, 6-4. The 28-year-old Czech is into her second career WTA 1000 final, following her runner-up performance at Cincinnati last year, shwere she was defeated by Gauff in the final.

Muchova hit 14 winners against just 10 unforced errors on the night, avenging her loss to Zheng in this year’s Palermo final.