China Open: Swiatek dominates, wins fifth title of the year
Iga Swiatek defeats Liudmila Samsonova 6-2, 6-2 at the China Open final in Beijing.
Since the US Open, Swiatek has played some of her best tennis, only dropping one set en route to her first title at the China Open.
Samsonova’s offense wasn’t enough to combat the ability of Swiatek, newly the second ranked player in the world, has to control opponents service games.
The first set saw the second seed break her opponent twice, leading to a 100% break point conversion rate. Swiatek also has the ability to force her opponents into long service games, tiring them out, and leading to Samsonova’s inability to close out her service games
In the second set Swiatek was carried by her momentum. Having zero unforced errors in the first set brought a lot of confidence to close out the match against Samsonova.
Although outplayed by her opponent, Samsonova has a lot of potential to make deep runs in major next season, and doing well could see her qualify for next year’s WTA Finals.
Swiatek becomes the first player since Serena Williams since 2016 to win five or more titles in back to back seasons.
Winning the final 1000 tournament of the season, Swiatek has a lot of momentum going into the WTA Finals in Cancun. The field has been set for Cancun, Swiatek will be joined by Aryna Sabalenka, Coco Gauff, Elena Rybakina, Jessica Pegula, Marketa Vondrousova, Karolina Muchova and Ons Jabeur.
