Elise Mertens had led Coco Gauff by a set and a break before at Eastbourne in 2021, and held three match points against her in Dubai in February. She lost both times. On Wednesday in the China Open fourth round she finished the job, 6-3, 6-3, winning 10 of her last 11 service points and closing the match with her second ace, according to the WTA.
Gauff’s serve went first and she hit eight double faults among 34 unforced errors, the WTA reported, and four of those double faults came in the game she dropped to lose the first set. Trailing 4-1 in the second set, she told her team courtside that she had “no energy” and felt as though she might pass out, according to the WTA. Mertens, the No. 13 seed, did not give her a way back.
“My coach/boyfriend [Christopher Heyman], it’s his birthday tomorrow,” Mertens said in her on-court interview. “So for me, this win is dedicated to him.”
It was the Belgian’s first win over Gauff in six meetings and her first straightforward scoreline of the week. She needed 2 hours and 54 minutes to beat Katie Volynets 6-0, 4-6, 7-5 in the second round and came from 2-0 down in the third set to beat Jelena Ostapenko in the third, the WTA said. The win was her 10th over a top-5 player and her second of 2026, after she beat Elena Rybakina in the third round at Wimbledon, and it puts her in her first Beijing quarterfinal in her seventh appearance.
The quarterfinal. Mertens plays Iga Swiatek, the No. 8 seed and 2023 champion, who beat 18-year-old Iva Jovic 6-1, 6-3 in 1 hour and 36 minutes. Swiatek won the first five games, and after Jovic broke back to level the second set, Swiatek broke twice in a row to finish it, the WTA reported. It was her 148th main-draw win at WTA 1000 level, level with Serena Williams. Swiatek leads Mertens 2-0, and Mertens is bidding for her first semifinal at WTA 1000 level or above since Dubai in 2021.
The seeds. Beijing has now lost its top three seeds. Rybakina and Aryna Sabalenka went out over the weekend, as GTN reported on Sunday, and Gauff, the 2024 champion, followed on Wednesday. Linda Noskova, the No. 5 seed, lost 6-2, 6-2 to Ekaterina Alexandrova on Tuesday, according to the WTA draw. That leaves Mirra Andreeva, the No. 4 seed, as the highest seed in the draw. She beat Daria Snigur 6-2, 6-2 and plays Alexandrova, the No. 19 seed and a player she has yet to beat, according to the WTA.
The rest of the last eight. Karolina Muchova, the No. 7 seed, beat Naomi Osaka 5-7, 6-1, 7-6(7) on her ninth match point on Tuesday, according to the WTA, and plays Nikola Bartunkova, the No. 26 seed who beat Sabalenka in the third round and Sara Kraus 6-0, 4-6, 6-3 in the fourth. The last two fourth-round matches, home favourite Zheng Qinwen against Alina Charaeva, the world No. 118 who beat Rybakina, and Ann Li against Elina Svitolina, the No. 6 seed, were still to be played when this was written. Their winners meet in the quarterfinals.
What comes next. The China Open final is on Sunday, 11 October. The tour moves the next day to the Wuhan Open, the last WTA 1000 of the season, which starts on Monday 12 October. GTN’s China Open guide covers the format, prize money and past champions.
