Swiatek surges past Gauff into French Open final

Iga Swiatek asserted her dominance over Coco Gauff on Thursday to move into the final of the French Open for the fourth time.

The top seed and defending registered her 11th win in 12 matches over the American to give herself the chance of emulating Justine Henin's feat of three successive French Open crowns.

Swiatek breezed through the first set but found the 20-year-old third seed  more obdurate at the outset of the second.

Gauff broke to lead 3-1 but could not consolidate the advantage and Swiatek responded with a rush of four games to take her to the threshold of victory. In a tense 12-minute game, Gauff saved two separate match points before prevailing.

It was a momentary reprieve.
"I was consistent with my tactics;" Swiatek told on-court interviewer Mats Wilander. "It was tense. Coco is progressing a lot," added the 23-year-old. "You can see by her results ... it's obvious that she will grow and I am sure we will have many more matches at a high level."

Swiatek will face the 12th seed Jasmine Paolini after she swept past the unseeded Russian Mirra Andreeva 6-3, 6-1.

"I'm very happy," said Paolini. "It was a tough match. I lost against Mirra a month ago and I was OK:  'You have to do better.'

"Ball after ball I was getting more relaxed even though it's tough to be relaxed at this stage of the tournament."

Swiatek, as the three-time French Open champion and winner of four Grand Slam tournaments, will go into the showdown against the 28-year-old Italian as overwhelming favourite.

She beat the Paolini without dropping a set in their two previous encounters at the Prague Open in 2018 and at theUS Open in 2022.