World number six Coco Gauff dominated unseeded Czech player Karolina Muchova to win the China Open – the eighth WTA title of her career and the first since January.

The American fourth seed struggled with her serve earlier in the week and had to recover from a set down against Paula Badosa in the semifinals to reach her first final since her win in Auckland earlier in the year.

But the 2023 US Open champion showed little sign of that fragility as she cruised to a 6-1, 6-3 victory in an hour and 17 minutes.

By winning the WTA 1,000 event in Beijing, Gauff moved to fourth place in the Race to the Finals, with the top seven qualifying for the season-ending tournament in Riyadh in November.

The young star made it through the opening set in just 30 minutes, driving her opponent into a series of unforced errors that earned her two breaks of serve.

The 28-year-old Muchova, who had lost four of her last five WTA finals and won her only title in 2019, could not keep up with Gauff’s power and athleticism.

However, Gauff’s problems with her serve came to the fore briefly in her first service game of the second set, when she made three double faults to give Muchova the break and a 2-0 lead.

But she immediately managed to break the break and started a streak of four consecutive games.

Muchova finally gave Gauff the win by firing a long forehand with her 24th unforced error, which told the story of the match compared to her opponent’s 24 winners.

Gauff celebrated her first title under new coach Matt Daly with a beaming smile after ending her partnership with Brad Gilbert last month following a fourth-round exit at the US Open where she failed to defend her crown.

Now we move on to the Wuhan Open, also in China, which starts on Monday.