Coco Gauff will contest her first final for nine months at the China Open in Beijing. The American continued her encouraging fortnight after a difficult summer with a 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 victory over Paula Badosa in the semi-finals.
The Spaniard, one of the form players of the past few months, was very much in the ascendancy at a set and 4-2 up but Gauff responded with four games in a row to level the match and maintained her momentum in the deciding set.
“I’m really happy with how I was able to come back today,” said Gauff. “Paula’s a tough opponent and every time we play it’s a tough match. I knew mentally I had to be there every point and, regardless of the result, I’m proud of how I was able to fight. It feels great to finish it with a final. I told my team, it’s a long two weeks but it’s worth it.”
Gauff’s last final came in Auckland in January, when she defeated Elina Svitolina to claim her seventh tour level title. She will take on the Czech Republic’s Karolina Muchova in the final, who followed up her upset of Aryna Sabalenka by defeating the home favourite Zheng Qinwen 6-3, 6-4.
Meanwhile, Novak Djokovic made a winning return to China against Alex Michelsen to reach the third round of the Shanghai Masters. The 24-time grand slam champion had not played in China since 2019 but chose it as the venue for his first ATP Tour event since May.
Djokovic plays sparingly these days and had contested only a Davis Cup match for Serbia since a shock loss to Alexei Popyrin in the third round of the US Open in August.
The American Michelsen took advantage of a slow start from Djokovic before fighting back in the second set but the 37-year-old was the stronger when it mattered to claim a 7-6 (3) 7-6 (9) victory.
It was a first meeting for the pair, and Djokovic said of his big-hitting 20-year-old opponent: “I’ve watched him play but never faced him on the court. I also haven’t played in a while so it took me a bit of time to get the rust off and get things going but he started off terrifically, big serves and a quite aggressive style of tennis.
“For a big guy he moves well, comes in, he’s not afraid to step it up and take it to his opponent. It was a very close encounter, I thought it was quite a high level of tennis. I’m just glad to keep my calm when it mattered in the second set tie-break.”
Michelsen, ranked 43, surged into a 3-0 lead but back came Djokovic to level at 4-4, and the fourth seed dominated the tie-break. Djokovic looked in total control at 4-1 up in the second set only for Michelsen to mount a comeback, and the American had two chances in the tie-break to force a deciding set but could not take either.
Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner both shrugged off the quick turnaround from their epic final in Beijing on Wednesday with comfortable victories. Alcaraz defeated China’s Shang Juncheng 6-2 6-2 while Sinner beat Taro Daniel 6-1 6-4 but the sixth seed Andrey Rublev lost in three sets to teenage Czech Jakub Mensik.