PARIS (AP) — Iga Swiatek is as good as it gets in tennis at the moment, especially at the French Open. Been that way for quite some time. So her unyielding success against Coco Gauff just about everywhere — and certainly at Roland Garros — should come as no surprise by now.
Swiatek continued her mastery over Gauff and extended her winning streak in Paris to 20 matches with a 6-2, 6-4 victory in the semifinals on Thursday.
“For sure, it was intense,” said the No. 1-ranked Swiatek, who claimed five of the last six games after trailing 3-1 in the second set. “I’m happy that I just was consistent with my tactics and didn’t overthink stuff and just went for it at the end.”
In Saturday’s title match, Swiatek will face No. 12 Jasmine Paolini of Italy, a 6-3, 6-1 winner against unseeded 17-year-old Mirra Andreeva of Russia in the second semifinal.
Swiatek is trying to earn her fourth championship in five years at the French Open and can become the first woman with three in a row since Justine Henin from 2007-09. For Paolini, this will be her first Grand Slam final; she never even had made it past the second round in any of her initial 16 appearances at majors until getting to the fourth round at the Australian Open in January.
Swiatek improved to 11-1 overall against No. 3 seed Gauff, the reigning U.S. Open champion. That is more victories than Swiatek has accumulated against any other player — and includes head-to-head wins at the clay-court Grand Slam tournament three years in a row, including in the 2022 final and last year’s quarterfinals.
“She is progressing a lot. You can see by her results. Last year’s U.S. Open, for sure, showed that she’s tough. At this age, it’s kind of obvious that she’s going to just grow. So it’s nice to see her handling well everything around her, because it’s not easy,” said Swiatek, who turned 23 last week. “I’m sure we’re going to have plenty more really intense matches on the really highest level.”
As far as Gauff is concerned, perhaps a different opponent would be preferable.
Swiatek, who is 4-0 in major finals, has been at her dominant best for most of the past month, following up on titles at clay events in Rome and Madrid.
Putting aside a three-set, second-round victory over four-time major champion Naomi Osaka, when she was forced to save a match point, Swiatek has ceded a total of merely 17 games in her other five matches in Paris.
Displaying her usual brand of powerful-but-clean groundstrokes, Swiatek needed only 10 winners to advance on Thursday, in part because she made only 14 unforced errors — while Gauff finished with 39.
This is what Swiatek does to whoever is across the net, particularly on clay: With defense and precision, she makes them hit so many shots that eventually the mistakes are bound to come.
There was a similar dynamic in the other semifinal. The key statistics were these: Paolini saved all six break points she faced, and she made just 10 unforced errors to Andreeva’s 29.
“I was nervous in the first set,” Paolini said, “but ball after ball, I was getting relaxed.”
It did not take long for Swiatek to assert herself on a sunny afternoon in Court Philippe Chatrier, where several spectators waved red-and-white flags of her native Poland — even drawing an admonition from chair umpire Aurélie Tourte in the second set.
