This final four matchup is precisely what the draw suggested, a battle of two superb backhands. It just didn’t come easily for either of these two American favorites.
Gauff was pushed to three sets by Leylah Fernandez in the third round, then rallied for a 4-6, 7-6 (4), 6-2 win over Belinda Bencic — beating both opponents for the third time this year. A straight-sets win over Eva Lys sent the 21-year-old defending champion into her 11th WTA 1000 semifinal.
No. 3 Amanda Anisimova was a 6-7 (4), 6-3, 6-4 winner over No. 6 Jasmine Paolini, her second straight three-set comeback.
It’s the first WTA 1000 semifinal between two Americans outside North America in 21 years.
The head-to-head is 1-all, with Gauff winning four years ago on the clay in Parma and Anisimova returning the favor three years ago at Wimbledon.
“It’s going to be another really tough challenge against Coco,” Anisimova said. “I’m excited to play an American for the first time here. It’s going to be a fun one.”
We investigate the strengths of each player:
The case for Gauff
She absolutely loves it in Beijing.
No one else has ever won 14 of their first 15 matches at the China Open. That’s one better than Grand Slam champions Naomi Osaka, Serena Williams and Svetlana Kuznetsova, who all went 13-for-15.
Over the past three seasons, Gauff has won 17 matches in China, a total she shares with native Zheng Qinwen.
Those back-to-back three-setters underline Gauff’s tenacity and problem-solving skills.
“It’s been a lot of fight, I think, for sure,” Gauff said Thursday. “I had to get through [Fernandez] barely. Then the same with Belinda. Honestly in the tiebreak, I got a little bit lucky hitting a let cord on one of those points.
“I was able to close it out on my serve, which is important for me I think for the long run.”
The possibilities of the short run are intriguing. While Gauff’s serve is a work in progress, she has a big edge in movement. And then there’s her return game. Against Paolini, Anisimova won exactly 45 percent of her first- and second-serve returns and break-point opportunities. Gauff’s numbers were: 50, 58 and 56 percent.
She’s three years younger than Anisimova but has accrued more experience in these big matches. She already has 22 WTA 1000 wins this year, eight more than Anisimova. This is Gauff’s 11th career WTA 1000 semifinal (Anisimova has three) and she’s looking to reach her third final of the year — and her third 1000 title in three years.
“These next two matches, obviously the further you go, the harder it’s going to get,” Gauff said of her chances to repeat in Beijing. “In my next round I have two [potential] quality opponents. It’s going to be a fight for that.”
The case for Anisimova
Momentum. You can’t see it, but it’s real.
With her victory over Paolini — the second comeback win over a Top 10 player in her career — Anisimova guaranteed herself a spot in the field at the PIF WTA Finals in Riyadh.
“It’s going to be my first time there,” Anisimova said. “A lot of new experiences for me this year, so I’m sure I’m going to have some really great memories there and do really well.”
First, there’s the matter of Beijing, where she dropped the first set against Paolini and Karolina Muchova, two quality opponents, and came back to win. And the last two sets against those gifted players weren’t particularly close. They represented Anisimova’s 11th and 12th three-set wins of the year; including retirements, only Madison Keys (16) has more. Anisimova and Gauff have each notched seven Top 10 wins this year — only Sabalenka (10) and Swiatek (eight) have more.
Anisimova is playing with the kind of confidence that carried her to the title in Doha and the finals at Wimbledon and the US Open. This is the player who lost 6-0, 6-0 to Iga Swiatek at the All England Club and less than two months later took her down in straight sets at the US Open. The same athlete who reached five WTA-level semifinals earlier this year — and won four of them.
The thing that separates her, even from Gauff, is that magnificent backhand, especially down the line. She can hit winners from anywhere on the court, startlingly, even from what appear to be neutral positions. At the US Open, men’s finalists Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz averaged 75 and 73 miles per hour, respectively, on their backhand side. Anisimova clocked in at an astounding 77 mph.
“There have been a lot of challenges for me the past two weeks,” Anisimova said, “and I’ve managed to try and figure my way through them and stay in those matches. I think that’s been really good because the end of the season can get really tiring and tough, so I’m happy with the way I’ve been able to perform here.”