AMERICAN young gun Coco Gauff has smashed a bevy of records en route to a commanding 6-1 6-3 victory over Karolina Muchova in the China Open final yesterday. The 20-year-old became the first player in the Open to win her first seven hard court WTA Tour finals, and only the second United States representative to win a title in Beijing.

For the third time – all in the space of just over a year – Gauff proved too good for Muchova, only dropping four games in a dominant performance. It marked the eighth title of her career, and backed up an earlier title defense in Auckland in January.

“That’s pretty cool,” Gauff said post-match of the seven-straight finals record. “I hope somebody else breaks it. I think records are meant to be broken, honestly.

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

Gauff hit 24 winners, 10 more than Muchova, while most impressively only hitting a third of the Czech’s unforced errors (8-24). The American won 85 per cent of her first serve points, broke five times to one and produced six aces to two.

“Today I just felt on, even from the first game,” Gauff said. “I had that feeling that I felt last year, too. Sometimes you just wake up and you’re like, ‘Today is my day.’ There’s no science behind it. I think that’s just when I played her.

“I played her on some really good days. I don’t think today was like her best tennis ever. So maybe I got lucky on that. She’s a great player. I think she’s one of the most talented players we have on tour.”

Gauff will return to the top five in the world rankings, ahead of Wuhan which starts today, while Muchova will bolt back into the top 30. Having cracked the Top 10 as high as eighth a year ago, the one-time title winner will look to reach that feat again soon.

For Gauff, she felt more relaxed than usual.

“I was just like, `This match is not going to change my life,’” Gauff said. “I knew regardless of the result today, I was proud. Honestly, I was just telling myself the whole match I’m proud of myself, how I was able to overcome and still work on things that I’ve been practicing on, too, and stick to it.”