China Open: Iga Swiatek beats Liudmila Samsonova to lift title 

Iga Swiatek captured her 16th career title after dropping four games to Liudmila Samsonova in the China Open final.

The 21-year-old Polish defeated World.22 Liudmila Samsonova 6-2, 6-2 in Sunday’s final to win her tour-leading fifth title of the season.

Aside from her mouth-watering winner, Swiatek also equaled Serena Williams’ title record, becoming the first player  to win five or more titles in back-to-back seasons, with the American doing so in 2014 and 2015.

“I’m happy that I won because, for sure, this is really big for me,” Swiatek said. “Winning this title is something that I never would have thought at the beginning of the tournament about. I’m pretty proud of myself.”

“Well, for sure you could feel that we are playing a final because it was a little bit tense, I would say,” Swiatek said. “But I’m happy that I kind of adjusted to what Liudmila was playing. I wanted to really be consistent with what I wanted to do no matter how she’s doing.”

Beijing is Swiatek’s 16th career title, joining her 2023 title hauls at Roland Garros, Doha, Stuttgart and Warsaw. She lost just one set in the tournament.

It is also the Polish Tennis Star sixth WTA 1000 title, making her the only player to win six or more WTA 1000 titles before the age of 23, eclipsing Caroline Wozniacki’s five.

The year-end No.1 will be decided at the WTA Finals in Cancun. Swiatek came into the tournament trailing No.1 Aryna Sabalenka by 1,305 points on the Race to the WTA Finals leaderboard.

With the win on Sunday, Swiatek cut Sabalenka’s lead down to 630 points, with 1,500 points up for grabs in Cancun.