Iga Swiatek tops Coco Gauff in French Open semifinal, will play for third straight title at Roland Garros vs. Jasmine Paolini
The No. 1 ranked player in the world certainly looked the 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'll become the No. 2 ranked player in the WTA rankings following the French Open. Swiatek will play Jasmine Paolini, who defeated Mirra Andreeva in straight sets, in the final on Saturday. Paolini is the first Italian woman to reach a Grand Slam final in almost nine years.
Swiatek's combination of her ability to get her first serve in — 68% for the match — and keeping the ball in play — just 12 unforced errors to Gauff's 36 — led to the straight set victory. The two-time defending French Open singles champion has dropped just one set on her way to the final and is looking to become just the third woman in the Open Era (Monica Seles 1990-92, Justine Henin 2005-07) to win the French Open three straight years. Also, if she's able to win Saturday's final she'll join Henin (4), Steffi Graf (6) and Chris Evert (7) as the only women to win the singles title at Roland Garros four times. And at just 23 years old, she'd be the youngest to have reached that mark.
Even as she ascends to her highest career ranking, Gauff heads back to the drawing board against Swiatek. She's now lost to Swiatek in three of the last four French Opens in addition to having just the one win in 12 matches against the top ranked player.
Gauff still has some work to do at Roland Garros — she's in the women's doubles semifinals with Katerina Siniakova and could still capture her first Grand Slam doubles title.
After going down 3-1 after an early second set flurry from Coco Gauff, Iga Swiatek has quickly regained control of the match and now has an eye on a third straight final at Roland Garros. She nabbed two straight breaks and will now serve up 4-3 to try to put one foot in the French Open final
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Coco Gauff goes up 3-1 in the second set
After a testy exchange with the chair umpire following an early call that didn't go her way — that replay appeared to show that Gauff was correct that a call had been made before she hit a ball — Gauff picked up a break in the second set to take a 3-1 lead. Composure was the name of the game in that instance as Gauff trailed in that service game before coming back to take a lead. The timely shotmaking from both players has been excellent throughout this match that is living up to the billing of the top two players in the game today facing off.
Coco Gauff was so upset with a bad call from the umpire that she was moved to tears in the 4th game of the 2nd set
While the errors are still hanging around, Coco Gauff seems to have steadied the ship on serve here in the second set. She's up to winning 80% of her first serve points in the second, where she's now up 2-1 and the crowd is getting behind her as the match continutes
After trading a couple of quick holds, Iga Swiatek has the first set in the books in 36 minutes. She got her first serve in at 68% in the first set, but the story so far has been Coco Gauff's misses...both forced and unforced. 29 errors in the first set for Gauff to just 9 for Swiatek who is putting on a defensive clinic against the reigning US Open champu
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Swiatek takes a big lead in the first set
More service trouble for Gauff leads to a 4-1 Swiatek lead in the first and now she's up a couple of breaks. Her movement and ability to dictate pace on clay has been on display in the early part of the match, but unforced errors are still bugging Gauff. She has 9 winners to Swiatek's 2, but the quality of Swiatek's defensive play and just keeping the ball in the court has been the difference in the first set.
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Swiatek keeps the lead with a tough hold
Now up 3-1 in the first set after surviving a couple of break points, Swiatek has an opportunity to put the first set nearly out of reach. Gauff has been better on the move in the first set, but unforced errors — 12 to Swiatek's 5 through the first 4 games, including some long forehands have Swiatek eying an early big lead.
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Gauff gets on the board
A quick hold for Gauff to get on the board in the first set, now trailing 2-1. Out of the gate, Gauff's serve hasn't been as strong as Swiatek's — Gauff has only gotten 40% of her first serves in play through the first three games, compared with 71% from Swiatek.
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Swiatek stacks the break
An early lead for Swiatek is now at 2-0 after a tough hold. Despite a few unforced errors off Gauff's racket, she was able to stay in the second game of the first set, jumping on Swiatek's second serve, but the world No. 1 was able to hold for the lead
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Swiatek opens with an early break
Gauff opened with a nervy first service game, missing on two first serves and sending a couple of forehands long to fall behind early as Swiatek opened the match with a break to get ahead out of the gate.
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69 degrees, clear and sunny in Paris for this hotly anticipated semifinal at Roland Garros
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Swiatek and Gauff take the court
The players are on the red clay at Court Philippe Chatrier in Paris getting warmed up. Iga Swaitek has won 10 of the 11 matchups between the two players, including their last two matches in 2023 in Cancun and Beijing.
The marquee matchup isn't the only match of the day
While the winner of the French Open semifinal between the top two players in the women's game will be the favorite to win at Roland Garros on Saturday, they'll have to take on the winner of the semi on the opposite side of the draw that features a couple of first time Grand Slam semifinalists in 17-year-old Mirra Andreeva form Russia and 28-year-old Jasmine Paolini from Italy.
At age-22 Iga Swaitek has already crafted one of the great legacies of any clay court player. She's won the French Open 3 times already, and enters this semifinal on a 19-match winning streak at Roland Garros. Yes, she'll have to take on one of the best players in the world in Coco Gauff in a semifinal and also have to win another match to lift the Suzanne-Lenglen Cup again, but with a 4th title in Paris, she'll have already passed Serena Williams (3 French Open titles) on the red clay.
Iga Swiatek and Coco Gauff will face each other in the Roland Garros Semifinals.
Iga leads the head to head 10-1.
The two times they’ve played here, Iga won.
Coco’s only win against Iga was on hard courts when she went on that magical run last summer.
— The Tennis Letter (@TheTennisLetter) June 4, 2024
Yahoo Sports Staff
Women's Semifinal Day at Roland Garros
The top two players in women's tennis meet today in one of the most anticipated semifinals of the season, and for the third time in three years Coco Gauff and Iga Swiatek face off in the French Open. Swiatek, the No. 1 player in the world, has won each of the past two years, but Gauff, who'll ascend to the No. 2 spot in the WTA rankings after the French Open won their tilt in Cincinnati last summer.
