The world No. 1 certainly looked her part in Paris on Thursday, as Iga Swiatek extended her winning streak to 20 matches at the French Open with a 6-2, 6-4 win over Coco Gauff. Swiatek is now 11-1 against Gauff, who will become the No. 2 player in the WTA rankings after the French Open. Swiatek will play Jasmine Paolini, who defeated Mira Andreeva in straight sets, in the final on Saturday. Paolini is the first Italian woman to reach a Grand Slam final in nearly nine years.
Swiatek’s combination of her ability to serve first serves – 68% in the match – and keep the ball in play – just 12 unforced errors to Gauff’s 36 – led to a straight-set win. The two-time French Open singles champion dropped just one set en route to the final and is looking to become the third woman in the Open Era (Monica Seles 1990-92, Justine Henin 2005-07) to win the French Open. Open three years in a row. Also, if she can win Saturday’s final, she will join Henin (4), Steffi Graf (6), and Chris Evert (7) as the only women to have won the singles title at Roland Garros four times. At just 23 years old, she will be the youngest to reach this number.
Even as she climbs to the highest ranking of her career, Gauff goes back to the drawing board against Swiatek. She has now lost to Swiatek in three of her last four matches at the French Open as well as her only win in 12 matches against the top-ranked player.
Gauff still has some work to do at Roland Garros, as she reached the women’s doubles semifinals with Katerina Siniakova, and could still claim her first Grand Slam doubles title.
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Swiatek regains control of the match
After losing 3-1 after an early second-set run from Coco Gauff, Iga Swiatek quickly regained control of the match and is now looking to reach a third successive final at Roland Garros. She has had two breaks in a row and will now serve 4-3 to try to put one foot in the French Open final
Coco Gauff led 3-1 in the second set
After a heated exchange with the chair umpire following an early call that didn’t go her way — replays appeared to show Gauff was right that a call had been made before the ball was hit — Gauff earned a break in the second set to take a 3-1 lead. Composure was the name of the game in that situation as Gauff trailed in that service game before coming back to take the lead. Both players’ well-timed shooting was excellent throughout this match, living up to the level of the two best players in the match today.
Gauff showed some fight in the second set
While the errors are still there, Coco Gauff appears to have steadied the ship on serve here in the second set. She is able to win 80% of her first serve points per second, as she now leads 2-1 and the crowd is rooting for her as the match continues.
Swiatek takes the first set
After trading a few quick holds, Iga Swiatek had the first set in the books in 36 minutes. She got her first serve at 68% in the first set, but the story so far has been one of Coco Gauff’s misses…both forced and unforced. 29 errors in the first set for Gauff, compared to only 9 for Swiatek, who put on a defensive clinic against the US Open champion.
Swiatek took a big lead in the first set
More good trouble from Gauff led to Swiatek taking a 4-1 lead into the first period and she is now on two periods of rest. Her movement and ability to control speed on clay were on display in the early part of the match, but unforced errors continued to trouble Gauff. She had 9 winners to Swiatek’s 2, but the quality of Swiatek’s defensive play and keeping the ball up the court was the difference in the first set.
Swiatek maintains the lead with a strong grip
Now that he leads 3-1 in the first set after surviving a few break points, Swiatek has a chance to put the first set almost out of reach. Gauff was better moving in the first set, but unforced errors – 12 to Swiatek’s 5 over the first 4 games, including some long forehands had Swiatek looking to take a big early lead.
Goff gets on the board
A quick catch by Gauff puts him on the table in the first set, now down 2-1. Out of the gate, Gauff’s serve wasn’t as strong as Swiatek’s — Gauff got just 40% of her first serves through the first three matches, compared to Swiatek’s 71%.
Swaatek stacks the break
Swiatek’s early lead is now 2-0 after tough control. Despite some unforced errors from Gauff, she was able to survive the second game of the first set, jumping on Swiatek’s second serve, but the world number one was able to retain the lead.
Swiatek starts with an early break
Gauff opened his first service game nervous, dropping two first serves and serving a couple of forehands long to fall behind early, with Swiatek opening the match with a break to take the lead out of the gate.
It’s 69 degrees, clear and sunny in Paris for the highly anticipated semi-final at Roland Garros.
Swiatek and Jove take the court
Players on the red clay at Philippe Chatrier Stadium in Paris warming up. Iga Swiatek has won 10 of the 11 meetings between the two players, including their last two matches in 2023 in Cancun and Beijing.
The marquee match isn’t the only match of the day
While the winner of the French Open semi-final between the top two players in the women’s game will be favorites at Roland Garros on Saturday, they will have to face the winner of the semi-final on the other side of the draw that includes two first-time semi-finalists. The Grand Slam finalists are 17-year-old Mira Andreeva of Russia and 28-year-old Yasmin Paolini of Italy.
Goat clay?
At 22 years old, Iga Swiatek has already created one of the greatest legacies of any clay court player. She has won the French Open 3 times already, and enters the semi-finals on the back of a 19-match winning streak at Roland Garros. Yes, she will have to face one of the best players in the world, Coco Gauff, in the semi-finals, and she will also have to win one more match to lift the Suzanne-Lenglen Cup again, but with a fourth title in Paris, she will be able to do so. She has already surpassed Serena Williams (3 French Open titles) on red clay.
Iga Swiatek and Coco Gauff will face each other in the Roland Garros semi-finals.
Iga leads head to head 10-1.
Both times they played here, Iga won.
Coco’s only win over Iga was on hard courts when she had that magical round last summer.
