Iga Swiatek of Warsaw, Poland won the 2023 China Open in Beijing on Sunday. In the final, Swiatek, the number two seed, defeated Liudmila Samsonova of Russia, 6-2, 6-2.
Double faults were a significant story in the match. Swiatek had zero double faults, while Samsonova had six double faults. Swiatek also broke Samsonova four times in four opportunities, while Samsonova did not have one break point chance in the entire match.
This was the first China Open since 2019. The tournament was cancelled because of coronavirus in 2020 and 2021, and did not occur in 2022 because of sexual assault allegations made by Chinese tennis player Shuai Peng against Chinese Vice Premier Gaoli Zhang. It is interesting that the WTA returned to China in 2023, and made the Beijing Open a WTA 1000 series event for the first time.
Swiatek beat two seeded players in China this past week. In the quarterfinals, Swiatek beat the 2022 United States Open semifinalist and ninth seed, Caroline Garcia of France, 6-7, 7-6, 6-1. Then in the semifinals, Swiatek beat the third seed, and 2023 United States Open champion Coco Gauff of the United States, 6-2, 6-3.
In keeping with the number five theme (also on Sunday American golfer Luke List won the 2023 Sanderson Farms Championship in a five-man playoff and it was the fifth week of the 2023 National Football League season), Swiatek won her fifth WTA tournament of 2023. She previously won the 2023 Qatar Open, the 2023 Stuttgart Open, her third French Open in the last four years, and the 2023 Poland Open. Swiatek remains second in the WTA world rankings behind Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus.
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