Iga Swiatek wins China Open with straight-sets victory over Liudmila Samsonova for 16th career WTA title

Iga Swiatek won the China Open final with a near-perfect 6-2 6-2 victory over Liudmila Samsonova on Sunday.

Swiatek's triumph, in her first visit to China, was her 16th career title and fifth of the season. Her impressive 2023 haul also includes titles at Roland Garros, Doha, Stuttgart and Warsaw.

Like her dominant defeat of No 3 seed Coco Gauff in the semi-final, Swiatek's serve was again the difference in Sunday's final, denying Samsonova a single break-point opportunity throughout the 69-minute match.

"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."

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Both players stayed on serve in a steady opening until 22nd-ranked Samsonova double-faulted on her first break point of the match. Swiatek then held for 5-2, and broke Samsonova again to take the first set.

Swiatek maintained the momentum into the second set to take an early break for 3-1 and quickly closed out her fifth title of the year after Samsonova put a drop shot into the net on match point.

The second seed finished the match without tallying a single unforced error and her opponent praised her consistency.

"I think this is what she's doing the best because this is the stress that she made to other players, that she doesn't make unforced errors," Samsonova said.

"Every time you need to do something more. It's not real what you feel, but she makes you feel like this. This is what I learned today."

Swiatek cut Aryna Sabalenka's lead down to 630 points in the race to top the world rankings at the end of the year and could overtake her at the WTA Finals in Cancun.

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