Karolina Muchova continues her outstanding form as she had no problems dismissing Paris Olympics gold medalist Zheng Qinwen to set up a blockbuster final against Coco Gauff.
The Czech, who is currently ranked at No. 49 in the world and unseeded in Beijing, ousted the Asian home favorite 6-3 6-4 in an hour and 47 minutes of play.
A day earlier, the former world No. 8 upset top-seeded Aryna Sabalenka in three sets to end the Belarusian's 15-match winning streak.
Now, Muchova has been through to her second final since kicking off her post-wrist surgery comeback in June. Also, this will be her second WTA 1000 final.
Interestingly, the first one also came against Gauff - she was beaten by the American in the 2023 Cincinnati final. Overall, the head-to-head between the two is 2-0 in favor of the 20-year-old as she also beat the Czech in the 2023 US Open semifinal.
For the 28-year-old Czech, that US Open match was extremely painful because she was bothered by a wrist injury and later had to undergo surgery and didn't play for the next 10 months.
How Muchova saw off Zheng?
After five relatively calm opening games, the world No. 49 earned the first break point of the match in the sixth game and realized it to go 4-2 up.
When serving for the first set in the ninth game, the Czech faced a break point but saved it before converting her first set point to seal the opener.
Shortly after taking the first set, the 28-year-oldalso collected an early break in the third game of the second set.
In the ninth game, the 2023 French Open finalist missed out on two match points on Zheng's serve but had no problems closing out the match on her serve in the following game.
So far this week, Muchova has dropped just one in six matches played and it will be interesting to see if she can now get her first win over Gauff and also bag her maiden WTA 1000 title.
