Iga Swiatek, Coco Gauff to meet in French Open semifinals

 

[June 05, 2024]  No. 1 seed Iga Swiatek and No. 3 Coco Gauff will clash in the French Open semifinals after winning in different ways on Tuesday.

Swiatek, the two-time defending champion from Poland, crushed reigning Wimbledon champ Marketa Vondrousova 6-0, 6-2 in 62 minutes. Swiatek, who also won at Roland Garros in 2020, extended her winning streak on the Parisian clay to 19 matches.

Gauff had a tougher time in the quarterfinals with No. 8 seed Ons Jabeur of Tunisia, rallying for a 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 victory in just under two hours. The 20-year-old American will face Swiatek for the third straight year at the French Open after losing to her in the title match in 2022 and the quarterfinals in 2023.

Swiatek is 10-1 against Gauff but is approaching the high-profile match with caution.

"It's good to just keep going and not think about this match as something huge -- just another match -- to not put too much baggage on your shoulders," Swiatek said. "But I guess Coco is not easy. She really likes playing on clay, especially here. I'll just focus on myself and I'll prepare tactically and we'll see."

Swiatek followed up a double-bagel win over Anastasia Potapova in the fourth round by winning the first seven games against Vondrousova. She finished with 25 winners to just 10 unforced errors and saved the only break point she faced against her Czech opponent.

"Everything worked. I feel like I've been serving better than in previous rounds, so that gave me an extra boost of confidence," Swiatek said. "I could just play my game and really go with my tactics and not really overthink anything."

Gauff struggled early against Jabeur, committing 14 of her 28 unforced errors in the first set before setting the pace and turning things around. Jabeur tallied 28 of her 38 errors in the final two sets.

"She was playing really well the whole match. She was hitting a lot of winners on me, which is something I'm not used to against anybody," Gauff said. "So today I was just trying to just be aggressive toward the end."

Gauff saved six of eight break points in the match, compared to just one of five for Jabeur.

"My favorite thing about Coco is her fighting spirit. I think she's playing, like, great tennis right now, but I saw her playing better before," Jabeur said. "Obviously she's such a fighter. She always tries to find ways. She's really smart on the court."

The other semifinalists will be determined Wednesday when No. 2 seed Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus faces 17-year-old Russian Mirra Andreeva and No. 4 seed Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan takes on No. 12 Jasmine Paolini of Italy.

--Field Level Media

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