The Polish Iga Swiatek clearly dominated her American rival Coco Gauff, physically weakened, in two sets 6-2, 6-3, Saturday at the WTA 1000 tournament in Beijing, where she will face the Kazakh Elena Rybakina or the Russian Liudmila Samsonova in the final.
Between numbers two and three in the WTA rankings, we could expect a close encounter. It didn’t happen: Swiatek, much more effective than her young opponent, broke the winner of the last US Open three times during a first round which ended easily with a score of 6-2.
The second set was not very different, the Pole, seeded N.2, twice again taking the service of Gauff (N.3), who called on a doctor to treat a painful shoulder before lose after 1h19 of play.
Dispossessed of her place as world number one by Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka a month ago, Iga Swiatek expressed her joy after this convincing success. “I will now wait to know my opponent, even if more broadly I think I will concentrate on what I have to do,” she commented. “I’m so happy with the way I’m playing that I don’t care who the opponent is,” she continued.
Whether it is Rybakina, seeded N.5, or Samsonova, 22nd player in the world, the Pole will be the favorite for Sunday’s final.