BEIJING – World No. 6 Coco Gauff defeated No. 19 Paula Badosa after a set and a loss in the semifinals of the China Open on Saturday. The 20-year-old American trailed 6-4, 4-2 before coming back to win 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 and advance to Sunday’s final.

Beijing: Results | Order of play | Pulls

To claim her second career WTA 1000 title and eighth overall, Gauff will face either number 5 seed Zheng Qinwen or US Open semi-finalist Karolina Muchova in the final. The American scored an impressive 7-1 result in the final of the Hologic WTA Tour.

Gauff’s victory over Badosa is her 20th WTA 1000 victory of the year, the most she has won in a single season. She is the fifth player, alongside Victoria Azarenka (20 in 2009), Agnieszka Radwanska (20 in 2009), Caroline Wozniacki (27 in 2010) and Iga Swiatek (22), to have a season with more than 20 wins in the WTA 1000s before turning 21 in 2022).

Gauff started the week in 6th place in the PIF WTA Race to the WTA Finals behind Jessica Pegula and ahead of Emma Navarro. Their advance to their second Hologic WTA Tour final of the season has boosted their chances of qualifying for the WTA finals in Riyadh for the third consecutive year.

Game notes: A semifinalist in Beijing last year, Gauff is the youngest player to reach consecutive Beijing semifinals since Maria Sharapova in 2004 and 2005. She is playing her first tournament after adding Matt Daly to her coaching team alongside long-time coach Jean-Christophe Faurel.

In the second game of the season, Gauff came back from a set down to beat Badosa in three sets. Saturday’s showdown was a rematch of their round of 16 duel in Rome, which Gauff won 5-7, 6-4, 6-1. She has now equalized their direct duel at 3:3.

How the game was won: Badosa won the 59-minute opening set by recovering from a break in a service game for 10 deuces and 26 points. With a break advantage of 4:3, Badosa bravely saved seven break points before Gauff finally broke through and equalized the set.

But the Spaniard responded immediately in the next game by beating Gauff at 15, regaining her footing and taking the set.

Turning point: Badosa quickly built a 3-1 lead in the second set before Gauff found a way back. In a crucial game, Gauff saved four break points to keep the score at 3-2 and then stormed to the end, bringing Badosa to level the score at 4-4. After shifting the momentum back to her side, Gauff quickly held and then broke again to force a third set.

“I feel like I played correctly the entire time, except for maybe a lot of double faults,” Gauff said. “But other than that I played properly. Sometimes I was just missing. She played at a very high level.”

“I just tried to get on the scoreboard and keep trying to get points on the scoreboard. These became games. I tried to stay in the moment.”

In total, Gauff won six games in a row before Badosa ended her winning streak 2-1 in the third set. Badosa equalized to 2-2, but couldn’t stop Gauff in the next game. Under pressure, Badosa almost got out of a 0:40 game, but Gauff took advantage of the break on her fourth chance to take a 4-1 lead and defended her lead until the end.

Final stats: Gauff’s aggressive intent was rewarded against Badosa. She finished with 38 winners to 39 unforced errors, 11 of which were due to double faults. Gauff created a total of 20 break chances and broke six times. She held Badosa to 24 winners.