Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark kisses the trophy during the awarding ceremony of the women's singles event at the China Open tennis tournament in Beijing, capital of China, on Oct. 7, 2018. (Xinhua/Jia Haocheng)
World No. 2 Caroline Wozniacki captured her second China Open title on Sunday with a commanding straight set victory of 6-3, 6-3 over No. 20 Anastasija Sevastova.
It's the third title of this year for Wozniacki, and she captured it by making crafty use of the court and waiting patiently for the right opportunities to hit winners.
Wozniacki hit the ground running in her first service game, holding her opponent to love with a commanding use of her backhand shots down the line. Sevastova was searching for the forehand shots that helped her past Osaka in the semifinal, but kept drawing blanks.
Both players held serve until Sevastova handed Wozniacki a break with an ugly unforced error, sending a drop shot straight into the net, putting the Dane up 4-2.
From that point on, the first set was not much of a contest, with Wozniacki's solid backhand and easy maneuvering at the baseline making quick work of the set in just over half an hour.
In the second set, Sevastova managed to put up more of a fight, but it did not seem as if it would go that way at the outset.
Wozniacki managed two breaks in the Latvian's first three services, storming to a solid 6-3, 4-1 lead that seemed unassailable given the ease with which the Dane was commanding the court in the first set.
But Sevastova was undeterred and brought Wozniacki to break point three times in a bid to pull level at 4-all.
When serving to go 5-3, Wozniacki appeared to be struggling to find her shots, again facing break point three times, with several unforced errors and a warning for a time violation seeming to knock her out of the rhythm that she badly needed in order to control the proceedings on court.
But she managed to collect herself and hold to go one break point away from her second China Open title.
After a bit of a struggle, Wozniacki got the break she needed to seal the victory in 55 minutes.
Sevastova coughed up 35 unforced errors, including 19 on the forehand side, on the way to the straight-set loss.
It's been nothing if not a consistent performance from Wozniacki here in Beijing this year. She managed to avoid dropping a single set on the way to the championship.
Wozniacki's first triumph at the China Open came some eight years ago, in 2010.
