By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Friday October 14, 2022
The World No.1 was locked in from start to finish as she raced past Coco Gauff to reach the semis in San Diego.
Photo Source: Tennis Channel
After reaching the quarterfinals at the San Diego Open, and setting a fourth career clash with World No.1 Iga Swiatek, American Coco Gauff looked ahead to the biggest challenge in women’s tennis.
“Obviously the level is going to be great. Iga is a champion and it’s going to be an opportunity to see if I improved since the last time,” she said.
On Friday in San Diego, Swiatek left Gauff with a laundry list of things to work on.
The 21-year-old World No.1 improved to 62-8 on the season with a dominant 6-0, 6-3 victory over and never let the 18-year-old get comfortable as she peppered her forehand and reeled off the first eight games of the contest.
“I’m just really happy that I could keep my focus,” Swiatek said. “Sometimes when it is going well it’s even harder to keep the focus and play the same kind of tennis, so I’m pretty happy that I was composed and really efficient.”
It was yet another exclamation point in a season of milestones for Swiatek, who improved to 4-0 lifetime against Gauff and has dropped just 11 games across their three meetings in 2022.
By winning a 6-0 set for the 20th time this season, Swiatek moved within the high number for this century, which was reached by Serena Williams (25) in 2013.
Count a pair of Grand Slam titles at Roland-Garros and the US Open, plus five other titles among the Pole's biggest milestones.
The Pole executed her game plan to a tee on Friday, delivering thundering forehands crosscourt, and making sure to take her serve and backhand to Gauff’s weaker backhand side as often as possible as Gauff committed 26 unforced errors against 17 winners.
Swiatek, meanwhile, delivered 13 winners against nine unforced errors to set a semifinal clash with Gauff’s doubles partner, American Jessica Pegula.
“We always play such solid matches with a lot of great rallies, and really physical,” Swiatek said of her upcoming clash with Pegula.
Pegula defeated Madison Keys on Friday, 6-4, 7-5. She has lost all three of her encounters against Swiatek in straight sets in 2022, but did win their first ever meeting in 2019, at Washington, D.C.
In other action Donna Vekic upset No.3-seeded Aryna Sabalenka, and will face either Danielle Collins or Paula Badosa in Saturday’s semifinals at the Barnes Tennis Center in San Diego.