BEIJING — Coco Gauff of the United States and Paula Badosa of Spain set up their women’s singles semi-final showdown at the China Open, while host pair Tang Qianhui and Yuan Yue bowed out in the doubles quarter-finals.
No.4 seed Gauff booked a return to a second consecutive China Open semifinal by coming from a set down to defeat Ukrainian qualifier Yuliia Starodubtseva 2-6, 6-2, 6-2 in the quarter-finals.
Beijing is the 20-year-old American’s third WTA 1000 semi-final of the year and first since Rome. She is the youngest back-to-back semifinalist at the China Open since Maria Sharapova achieved the feat in 2004 and 2005.
Gauff will face 15th seed Badosa on Saturday for a spot in her first final since winning Auckland in January and first at the WTA 1000 level since winning Cincinnati last summer. Badosa leads their head-to-head 3-2. Gauff won their only meeting of the season on the clay in Rome.
Gauff entered the week at No.6 on the PIF Race to the WTA Finals and her run in Beijing has bolstered her chances of qualifying for her third straight season-ending championships, wtatennis.com reported.
In their first career meeting, Gauff overcame a slow start to reel in the surging Starodubtseva, who was playing her second WTA quarter-final in her WTA 1000 debut. Ranked No.115, the 24-year-old graduate of Old Dominion University had yet to lose a set in Beijing until Gauff stormed back in the second set.
“I was just trying to remember what we’ve been working on on the practice court,” Gauff said. “It’s still a lot of things I’m adjusting to, so for me, it’s about trusting the process and focusing on that.
“Today, I can’t control how I play or how she plays, but I can just try to control my mindset and commit to the process.”
Starodubtseva dominated the opening frame from the first game, breaking an error-prone Gauff immediately. Starodubtseva held Gauff to zero winners, while striking 10 of her own.
With Gauff struggling to find her the rhythm on her serve and throwing in seven double faults, Starodubtseva maintained consistent return pressure. She generated nine break-point chances and broke three times in the 40-minute set.
Gauff responded by showing her champion’s mettle. She saved two break points in her opening service game of the second set and broke to lead 3-1. After wiping away two more break points to consolidate her advantage, Gauff settled down to lose just 3 games for the rest of the match.
After forcing the decider, Gauff opened up a 3-0 lead to start the third and never let Starodubtseva put the result into doubt. Gauff did not face a break point in the final set. She lost just four points on serve.
With the win over Starodubtseva, Gauff improved to 12-1 against qualifiers this year. She has also won 24 of her last 25 matches against players outside the Top 100 on the PIF WTA Rankings.
Starodubtseva, who last month became the first woman in the Open Era to successfully qualify at all four Grand Slams in a single season, will make her Top 100 debut on Monday.
Badosa survived a stern second-set test from wild card Zhang Shuai in the China Open quarterfinals, coming from 3-1 down to triumph 6-1, 7-6(4) in 1 hour and 23 minutes.
Badosa advances to her third semifinal in her past five tournaments, and has now won 28 of her last 35 matches dating back to mid-May.
At that point, she was ranked No.140, but in the space of just four months she has firmly re-established herself in the Top 20. A title this week could even see the Spaniard return to the Top 10 for the first time since 2022.
Former World No.2 Badosa’s run this week marks her fifth semi-final at WTA 1000 level. In 2021, she won the biggest title of her career to date at Indian Wells; she also made the last four at Madrid 2021, Indian Wells 2022 and Cincinnati 2024.
After a one-sided first set, in which Badosa broke Zhang to love three times, the home player raised her game to go toe-to-toe with the Washington champion through the second set.
A series of fine backhands and drive volleys enabled Zhang to take a 3-1 lead, and despite being pegged back to 3-3 the World No.595 continued to stay on the front foot. Off the ground, Zhang largely outplayed Badosa, tallying 20 winners to her opponent’s eight.
Badosa’s trump card was her serve. Once rallies got going, Zhang had the advantage — but a total of 10 aces, and many more unreturned deliveries, enabled Badosa to prevent too many rallies from getting going in the first place.
Towards the end of the second set, Zhang’s aggressive tactics became more of a tightrope.
The 35-year-old’s hitting became more spectacular — the two rallies that saw her hold for 6-6 had her home crowd on their feet — but in the tiebreak, she missed two crucial would-be winners by inches. Badosa, who kept her unforced error count to 14 compared to Zhang’s 22, proved the more solid player in the home stretch.
