Twelve months after one of the most memorable and successful weeks of her career, Coco Gauff is back in Beijing for her China Open title defence — and will look for a strong start in her opening match.
Gauff has been far from her best since winning the French Open title back in June, though she has defied calls from some to take time away from the game to work on her serve, and will be hoping to strike magic once again inside the Beijing National Tennis Center.
Having received a bye in the opening round, the world No 3 and second seed now knows she will face world No 89 Kamilla Rakhimova in her first match; here, we look at all you need to know about the American’s first opponent in her title defence.
Who is Kamilla Rakhimova?
Born in Yekaterinburg in August 2001, Rakhimova was still a teenager when she made her WTA Tour main-draw debut at the 2019 Baltic Open, and has been plying her trade across both the WTA and ITF circuits since.
The biggest title of her career to date came at the WTA 125 Guadalajara Open in 2024, beating Tatjana Maria in the final, while she was also a finalist at the WTA 125 Golden Gate Open in August 2023.
Rakhimova has never reached a singles final at WTA Tour level but is a three-time doubles champion on the main draw, with a further four finals to her name.
Having reached a career-high of world No 60 at the end of 2024, the 24-year-old has now dropped down to 89th in the WTA Rankings after a difficult season to date; she currently holds a 25-28 record for the year.
Her biggest highlight during her challenging 2025 season was arguably her run to the third round of Wimbledon, where she picked up the biggest win of her career to date.
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After rallying from a set down to beat Aoi Ito in the opening round, Rakhimova then came from a set down again to stun fourth seed and 2024 SW19 finalist Jasmine Paolini in round two, before falling to 30th seed Linda Noskova in round three.
That was the third time she had made the third round of a Grand Slam, after similar runs at the 2021 US Open and 2023 French Open.
Rakhimova was on a three-match losing streak heading into Beijing, falling in the second round of the US Open, the opening round of her WTA 125 Guadalajara Open, and then in the opening round of the WTA 500 event in Guadalajara.
However, her China Open campaign began with a confident 6-4, 6-1 victory over Lucia Bronzetti on Wednesday, the opening day of the tournament.
Head-to-head and match time
This will be the first meeting between Gauff and Rakhimova, who have never previously met at any level.
However, despite her own struggles as late, world No 3 Gauff should enter as a significant favourite, with Rakhimova’s Wimbledon win over Paolini the only time in eight attempts that she has beaten a top-10 opponent.
Gauff and Rakhimova’s match time is yet to be confirmed though, with the two on the bottom half of the draw, they will likely head onto court on Friday.
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The post Who will Coco Gauff play in her first China Open match? World No 89 Kamilla Rakhimova appeared first on Tennis365.
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