AFTER a long couple of weeks, the 2024 China Open finalists have been decided. Fourth seed Coco Gauff and the dangerous Karolina Muchova will fave off in Beijing tonight as both players will eye off a second WTA 1000 title.

Incredibly, the 28-year-old Muchova only has one title to her name – Seoul in 2019 – to go with four finals appearances including last year’s Roland Garros. Both of her previous matches against Gauff came just over a year ago when losing the Cincinnati final, and then the US Open semi-final two weeks later.

Muchova missed nine months of action due to injury, returning in June this year. Since then, she made the Palermo final and US Open semi-final for the second successive year, and now is in the Beijing decider as well.

Despite being just 20 years of age, Gauff has already racked up seven WTA Tour titles, with the world number six winning Washington and Auckland to go with Cincinnati and Flushing Meadows last year, with Auckland in 2024 being her most recent title.

In her semi-final, Gauff survived a two-hour and 20-minute marathon against former world number three Paula Badosa, 4-6 6-4 6-2 to reach the final. She still had major issues on serve with 11 double faults, but did win 76 per cent of her first serve points, which creating 20 break point chances, taking six.

“I feel like I was playing the right way the whole time, other than maybe a lot of double-faults,” Gauff said post-match. “But other than that, I was playing the right way. Just missing sometimes. She was playing a very high level.

“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.”

Meanwhile Muchova also had a tough encounter, but was able to close the match out in straight sets against local hope Qinwen Zheng. The Chinese talent defeated Muchova in Palermo, but the Czech was able to turn that around in Beijing with a 6-3 6-4 victory in an hour and 48 minutes.

Muchova was incredibly consistent on serve, winning 79 and 61 per cent of her first and second serve points, while capitalising off her opponent’s second serve. Zheng could only manage 39 per cent of her second serve points, which included seven double faults. That enabled Muchova to break twice, while saving the only break point she faced.