The last WTA 1000 on the calendar reached its climax on Sunday. World No. 2 Iga Swiatek will square off against World No. 22 Liudmila Samsonova for the WTA Beijing title. Swiatek is seeking a Tour-leading fifth title of the season, while Samsonova is aiming to win her first. The Russian stretched Swiatek to three sets on her beloved clay last year, so can she pull off the upset of the tournament to win the China Open?
WTA Beijing Final Prediction
Iga Swiatek vs Liudmila Samsonova
Head-to-head: Swiatek 2-0 Samsonova
After a quarterfinal loss to Veronika Kudermetova in Tokyo, Iga Swiatek’s response has been swift and decisive. The World No. 2 dropped just one set en route to her seventh final of the season. The Pole snapped Coco Gauff’s 16-match win streak with a thoroughly dominant semifinal win, 6-2, 6-3, in 75 minutes. Swiatek’s command of baseline rallies won the day, outmuscling and outmaneuvering Gauff to submission. Her serve was equally as effective, winning 87% first-serve points (26/30) in the contest. An error-strewn performance by Gauff, largely affected by an apparent shoulder issue, contributed to the defeat.
Liudmila Samsonova, meanwhile, authored the upset of fifth seed Elena Rybakina 7-6, 6-3, extending her undefeated record over the Kazakh to 4-0. Like Swiatek, the Russian has dropped just one set at WTA Beijing, which came in that topsy-turvy round of 16 match against Marta Kostyuk. In a clash of the heavyweights, the match featured just three breaks of serve. Rybakina tripped in the most important points, including a set point in the first set. Samsonova’s all-out attack yielded 33 winners, which proved sufficient in getting a result over the Kazakh, who managed just seven.
Samsonova is one of the best servers on tours and the epitome of first-strike tennis. After struggling to take control of her serve at the start of the tournament, she hit her spots in each of her last two outings against Ostapenko and Rybakina. She will need her biggest weapon operating at peak level in the final. There are loopholes to her game, though, and Swiatek will try to utilize her vast skillset and superior movement to prolong the rallies in her bid to extract the errors. Pound for pound, the Pole can match Samsonvoa’s groundstroke power. Add to Swiatek’s excellent depth in her shots, and she looks primed to bag the WTA Beijing title, her first WTA 1000 of the season.
Prediction: Swiatek in 2
Main Photo Credit: Danielle Parhizkaran – USA TODAY Sports
