In another surprising upset, unseeded Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic, continued her good run this week, when she defeated the eighth seeded American, Alison Riske 6-3 6-4, to capture the Shenzhen Open title in China yesterday.

The 20 year old Czech player, who has already enjoyed some Doubles and ITF title success, became the first unseeded player and the youngest winner to have her name engraved on the trophy in the five-year history of this tournament. 

During the week, she had defeated the second seed and 2015 champion, Simona Halep and the third seed, Johanna Konta. 

In yesterday’s final, Siniakova continued to “flirt” with the lines during her return shots, which resulted in several unforced errors, but then compensated with some fantastic winners and when it counted, won four out of the six break point opportunities.

Riske, who lost to Agnieszka Radwanska in last year’s final, was happy with her performance this week. She managed to avenge the loss by defeating the top seeded Radwanska in the quarter-finals and will be confident going into the Australian Open, which gets underway in Melbourne on 16 January.