Amanda Anisimova captured her second WTA 1000 title of the season, defeating Linda Noskova 6-0, 2-6, 6-2 in Sunday's China Open final. The American recovered from a mid-match wobble to clinch her fourth career title in Beijing, continuing her breakthrough 2025 campaign that has already seen her reach back-to-back Grand Slam finals at Wimbledon and the US Open. The third-seeded Anisimova needed one hour and 46 minutes to overcome the 20-year-old Czech, who was playing in her first WTA 1000 final. The victory makes Anisimova only the third American to win the China Open, joining Serena Williams and Coco Gauff.
The final produced a rollercoaster of emotions across three sets, with both players experiencing dominant periods and dramatic momentum shifts. Anisimova started ruthlessly, racing through the opening set in just 23 minutes without dropping a single game. The American won 27 of the 39 points played, overwhelming Noskova with aggressive baseline striking and clinical court coverage. Anisimova dropped just one of 11 first serve points played in that set, putting the Czech under immediate pressure, winning 59% of first return and 71% of second return, denying any competition in opening phase of the match.
Noskova appeared shell-shocked early, managing just 12 points in the entire first set. However, the 20-year-old demonstrated remarkable resilience at the start of the second. She broke Anisimova in an 11-minute opening game that proved pivotal, going on to establish a 5-2 lead before closing out the set 6-2. The Czech suddenly looked like the more likely winner, having completely turned the match on its head with aggressive serving and powerful groundstrokes.
The decider became a test of nerves and tactical adjustment. Anisimova raised her level precisely when it mattered most, breaking in the sixth game to take a 4-2 advantage. She then sealed the championship with another break, finishing with a backhand winner that sent her collapsing to the court in delight. The title match, same as all the previous Anisimova's outings in Beijing this week seemed like completely on her racquet. Despite the slump and quite erratic play in the middle phase, Anisimova fired 36 winners in compare to 35 unforced errors. Noskova was expectedly focused more on executing the more defensive gameplan, not matching hitting tools of her superior opponents. The Czech scored 15 winners committing 22 unforced errors. The title could go either way with both players being leveled till the 5th game of decisive set, but Anisimova found the right moment to bring back the level which elevated her through the whole China Open.
Ranking movements
Anisimova has strengthened her position in the top tier of WTA Rankings, building a hefty cushion of about 1.3k points behind her in 4th place. More importantly, the American has officially secured the advance into WTA Finals and overtook her compatriot Coco Gauff in 3rd spot of WTA Race. Linda Noskova celebrates two milestones achieved this week. It was her first career's WTA 1000 final which helped her to move into top 20 of the rankings for the first time in career. Noskova will be new world number 17 on Monday, sitting 15th in WTA Race however without realistic chances of advance into Riyadh YEC. Two sensations of this tournament capitalize on their great performance as well - Eva Lys makes into top 50 of the rankings, advancing into her career's highest 45th after making into quarterfinals. Another surprising quarterfinalist also lifts up as Sonay Kartal gains 21 places to advance into 60th.
On the other side, there are great peformers from last year who lost a few position due to not defending points earned in 2024. Karolina Muchova drops down from top 20, sliding into 22th as her run into round of 16 did not compensate the loss of points for being runner-up in Beijing last season. The home favorite Qinwen Zheng stays in top 10 despite losing points from semifinal run last year, but the Chinese will lose her top 10 position in next ranking as she not plays in Wuhan due to the renewed elbow injury.
One of the hottest topic in that part of the season is surely the fight for WTA Finals spots. Jessica Pegula, Madison Keys and Mirra Andreeva look quite safe with their cushion of a few hundred points ahead of 9th Jasmine Paolini. The Italian will most likely fight for the last qualified place against Elena Rybakina - the Kazakh sits at 8th in WTA Race, being just 55 points ahead of the Italian. 10th Ekaterina Alexandrova is 670 points behind. 11th Clara Tauson has more than 1k points gap to chase, so the chances for anyone behind top 10 looks just illusory at the moment.
The top players start their last season's WTA 1000 campaign in Wuhan after the weekend. You can follow the article with preview and and analysis of main draw before the start of this event.