WTA Tour: Gauff downs Sun, Zheng Qinwen advances to last 16 of China Open
Beijing: American two-time Grand Slam winner Coco Gauff pulled away late, winning nine of the final 10 games to beat 16-year-old Chinese Sun Xinran 7-5, 6-1 and advance to the Round of 16 for the fourth consecutive year in the China Open WTA Tour event in Beijing on Monday.
Gauff has now won 24 of her 28 career matches at the WTA Tour level against younger opponents. Her only loss to a teenager during that span came against eventual champion Victoria Mboko in Montreal in 2025.
Despite the result, Gauff had nothing but praise for the young Chinese standout.
“I think she’s a little bit more mature than I was at 16,” Gauff said in her post-match interview. “I think I got a little bit more frustrated than she did. But she’s an incredible player. I knew going in it was going to be a tough match. The junior career that she’s had is incredible, and obviously she’s going to do great at this level.
Meanwhile, Chinese star Zheng Qinwen battled past 18th seed Marie Bouzkova of the Czech Republic 7-6 (3), 4-6, 7-5 to reach the women’s singles Round of 16 match on Monday.
Zheng earned the first break of the match, but Bouzkova responded by converting a break point in the sixth game. The set went to a tiebreak, where Zheng pulled away to win 7-3.
Bouzkova made the stronger start to the second set, taking a 3-0 lead before holding off Zheng’s attempts to recover and forcing a decider.
The players traded service holds for much of the final set before Zheng converted her second match point to seal the victory.
“Bouzkova is a very steady player, so I need to be patient, and I need to balance between forced and unforced errors,” reflected Zheng right after the match.
Zheng will meet Alina Charaeva of Armenia in the next round.