Amanda Anisimova faced her highest-ranked opponent of the campaign and ended up having her quickest and most decisive victory. Needing under an hour on the clock, the 24-year-old set aside second seed and defending champion Coco Gauff, 6-1, 6-2, after the latter struck 22 unforced errors to just eight winners.
It wasn’t until the 2024 season that the American scored her first career wins at the China Open, settling with a fourth-round finish to Zheng Qinwen. A year later, she returned to the grounds as a top-4 player but has not been immune from playing the utmost challenging matches in most of the rounds.
In addition to having to save multiple set points to defeat Zhang Shuai, 7-6, 6-3, the Floridian had to rally from a set down against Karolina Muchova and Jasmine Paolini. As a result of this determined march to the final, she now holds a total of eight top-10 wins in the season (8-3), half of her entire career count.
After concluding the 2024 season with a withdrawal from the Wuhan second round, the New Jersey-born has not looked back. She claimed her biggest career title at the Qatar Open in February, stormed into her first Slam finals in London and New York, and — after this Beijing run — confirms her WTA Finals debut appearance.
The moment has perhaps come for the new world No. 4 to set aside her 3-5 career record in finals (0-3 since winning the Doha title). Since the beginning of the China Open in 2004, only two US players have claimed the tournament: Serena Williams in 2004 and 2013, and Coco Gauff last year.
Linda Noskova could not have asked for a more rollercoaster match as she played her maiden career WTA 1000 semifinal. Saving three match points in a single return game, the Czech edged world No. 7 Jessica Pegula, 6-3, 1-6, 7-6, in two and a half hours in a match with 26 combined breakpoints and nine breaks.
Now into her fifth and biggest career final, the 26th seed can reflect upon a campaign that has been, by and large, more straightforward than Anisimova’s. Three of her five rounds have ended in straight sets, with the clash against Zheng Qinwen ending with a third-set retirement.
The 20-year-old — who had made only one appearance at the China Open in the past — would be over the moon to have confirmed her top-20 debut. This is despite the fact that it has not been a picture-perfect season, having won one match in Australia and going 3-7 from Indian Wells to Roland-Garros (excluding BJK Cup).
With losses in three of her previous four WTA finals, the youngster has her work cut out. A few months ago, she did try to win her second career title (after the one in Monterrey in August 2024) but lost the championship round to compatriot Marie Bouzkova on the home hard courts of Prague in three sets.
There have been two previous attempts by Czech players to win the China Open finals in its two-decade history, with both going down in vain: Petra Kvitova in 2014 and Karolina Muchova in 2024. In fact, the tournament is about to witness a US–Czech final for the second year in a row.
Head-to-head: 1-1. While both of their past clashes have come at high-profile events, neither of them carried this much at stake. Linda Noskova drew the first blood in Indian Wells in 2023 in close straight sets. Amanda Anisimova waited until Wimbledon this summer to settle the score in three sets.