By Richard Pagliaro | @TennisNow | Thursday, June 6, 2024
Iga Swiatek sustained her dominance of Coco Gauff scoring a 6-2, 6-4 sweep to roll to her 20th straight Roland Garros win and fourth French Open final.
Photo credit: Corleve/Mark Peterson
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Reigning champion Swiatek shredded Coco Gauff 6-2, 6-4 storming into her fourth Roland Garros final.
It is Swiatek’s 18th consecutive clay-court victory as she improved to 42-4 in 2024, while raising her Roland Garros record to 34-2, matching Hall of Famer Chrissie Evert’s mark.
“I I think I was pretty intense and putting pressure on Coco," Swiatek told the media in Paris. "Even though I got broken in the first -- at the beginning of the second set, I knew that I can come back quickly, and I got my level of intensity a little bit higher to do that.
"I think most of the things overall in my game worked today, so I'm proud of myself.”
Three-time champion Swiatek rides a 20-match Roland Garros winning streak into Saturday’s final against 12th-seeded Jasmine Paolini.
The 28-year-old Paolini continued her dream run dismissing 17-year-old phenom Mirra Andreeva 6-3, 6-1 to storm into her maiden major final in her 18th Grand Slam appearance.
Swiatek has obliterated Paolini in two prior meetings permitting just six games in four sets.
"We played a long time ago, so I need to prepare tactically and see what her game is at now because for sure she's playing—she has the best season, so she must have changed something," Swiatek said of Paolini. "We'll see because, honestly, I haven't watched her matches, so there's not a lot for me to say.
"I'll just focus on myself and prepare tactically and try to be consistent with my tactic."
Facing Swiatek in a Paris final is as daunting as leap-frogging the Eiffel Tower in single bound.
Tennis terminator Swiatek has won nine consecutive finals and carries an imposing 21-4 finals record into the title match.
Asked to describe her comfort on clay, Swiatek replied "high" prompting laughter from media in Paris.
"Because the surface makes my game better. My grip allows me to spin more," Swiatek added. "I can play more defense points because it's a bit slower, but on the other hand, I have also more time to attack sometimes.
"So I feel like I'm just using it well."
Since Swiatek saved a match point and rose from the red clay ashes to fight off former world No. 1 Naomi Osaka 7-6, 1-6, 7-5 in a rousing three-hour thriller that Hall of Famer Lindsay Davenport called “the highest-quality second-round match I’ve ever seen in a major,” she has been pure fire becoming the second-youngest woman—after Steffi Graf—to reach four French Open finals.
Since her scare vs. Osaka, Swiatek has surrendered just 14 games in her last four matches, reinforcing her mastery of Gauff.
The good news for the 20-year-old Gauff is she rises to a career-high ranking of No. 2 after reaching her third straight major semifinal.
The bad news is this result highlights the massive chasm between No. 1 Swiatek and No. 2 Gauff.
A confident Swiatek has won 11 of 12 meetings vs. Gauff sweeping 23 of 25 sets they’ve played, including winning all 10 sets they’ve played on red clay. Down 1-3 in the second set today, Swiatek won five of the final six games.
In this rematch of the 2022 French Open final, Gauff came out with the go big or go home game plan trying to take the first strike and ripping her returns. Swiatek answered rolling through the opening set.
Credit Gauff for competing with intensity and throwing multiple game plans at the world No. 1 and overcoming tears after a tiff with the chair umpire to continue the fight.
In the end, you can point to Gauff’s 39 unforced errors compared to Swiatek’s 14 unforced errors or the fact Gauff won just 32 percent of her second serves compared to Swiatek who sported a 67 percent second-serve win rate.
As opponents used to say about facing 23-time Grand Slam champion Serena Williams “when you come for the queen, you best not miss.”
Playing ultra-aggressive tennis for a set today, Gauff missed way too much.
It’s tough to try to step in on a red clay court, take Swiatek’s twisting topspin forehand on the rise when you don’t always get the same true bounce you do on a hard court. Given her career-long futility against the powerful Pole, you can't fault Gauff at all for trying something different.
The issue is Gauff must strengthen her western-grip forehand in order to truly compete with Gauff and that will take some time to implement. In the meantime, Gauff, who blasted a 125 mph serve today and hit the fastest serve of the tournament, would have been wise to bang some body serves as second serves right into Swiatek's right hip rather than allow the Pole to rip away at the second delivery.
Opening the match with back-to-back forehand errors, Gauff finally got Swiatek in the backhand exchange she wanted only to see the top seed smoke a backhand winner down the line for two break points.
Moving forward, Gauff bungled a forehand drive volley—her third forehand error of the game gave the champion the opening break.
Cracking a couple of backhand bolt returns, Gauff gained break point in the next game. Swiatek saved it with a strong serve, eventually holding for 2-0.
Two games later, Gauff earned another break point, but ballooned a forehand well long to squander it.
The third seed was reading the direction of Swiatek’s drives and moving well, but the forehand failed her on some pivotal points as Swiatek held firm for 3-1.
Swiatek was squeezing her drives near the lines and Gauff was missing when she tried amping up the pace. Slapping a backhand into net to drop serve, Gauff slapped her hand off her thigh in frustration falling into a 1-4 hole down a double break.
The reigning Roland Garros rolled through eight of her last nine points on serve to seal her ninth straight clay-court set over Gauff.
While Gauff hit 12 winners to 2 for the champion, she more than tripled Swiatek’s unforced error total—18 to 5—highlighting a major disparity between the Grand Slam champions.
When Swiatek gets the mid-court ball, she fires the finishing forehand.
When Gauff gets the mid-court ball, her backhand is a kill shot but she can’t consistently end points with the forehand. Today, she couldn’t consistently land the forehand—Gauff hit one forehand winner against 10 forehand errors in that opening set.
Digging in, Gauff pounded down a 122 mph ace that helped her earn a hard-fought hold to start the second set.
Swiatek was serving at 1-2 when a linesman incorrectly called her serve out as Gauff was hitting her backhand return. Chair umpire Aurelie Tourte overruled and awarded the point to the top seed rather than replaying the point as appeared warranted based on replay.
The chair umpire’s refusal to replay the point annoyed Gauff, who walked over to the chair and challenged her to ask the linesman himself to confirm when he yelled out.
“He called it before I finished my swing…Ask him,” Gauff urged chair umpire Aurelie Tourte. “You won’t [ask] because you know you’re wrong.”
That brief tiff left Gauff brushing back tears with her sweatband as she tried to walk off the stress behind the baseline.
"I think it was just overwhelming of everything," Gauff said of unleashing her emotion. "Obviously, I'm losing the match. When you're playing against her -- every point matters against anybody, but especially against her. I think it was just one of those moments, but I overcame it. I obviously won that game.
"So I usually don't get too frustrated with decisions like that, but I think it was just a combination of everything going on in the moment."
The dispute seemed to fire up Gauff, who got to break point again only to see Swiatek swat a forehand winner off the sideline.
Coach Brad Gilbert implored Gauff to hit her forehand higher over the net. Playing behind Swiatek with a backhand down the line, Gauff came in and finally hit the forehand winner down the line breaking for 3-1.
The American was peaking, but Swiatek was soon streaking again.
Three-time champion Swiatek broke right back then pressured Gauff again in the seventh game. Exploiting a double fault and a stray forehand, Swiatek stormed net and tomahawked a smash into the corner, scoring her fourth break with a bang for a 4-3 lead after 73 minutes.
Serving at 3-5, Gauff pasted a forehand into net to face match point. The Auckland champion cranked one of her biggest forehands of the day to deny match point. Gauff saved a second match point then belted a backhand to hold for 4-5.
Credit Gauff for going down fighting. She saved a third match point with a deep backhand drive.
On her fourth match point, Swiatek went to her fail-safe play challenging the Gauff forehand and drawing a wild error to seal her fourth trip to the French Open final.