Iga Swiatek serves up fourth Roland Garros final, eases past Coco Gauff in Paris

Iga Swiatek stormed into her fourth Roland Garros final on Thursday, conquering Coco Gauff, 6-2, 6-4 to put herself a win away from a third straight victory in Paris.

The world No. 1 has been nigh unstoppable on clay in 2024, winning back-to-back WTA 1000 titles at the Mutua Madrid Open and the Internazionali BNL d’Italia, and won an 18th straight match to defeat Gauff in one hour and 37 minutes on Court Philippe-Chatrier.

Awaiting her in the final will be either No. 12 seed Jasmine Paolini or unseeded 17-year-old Mirra Andreeva.

Gauff has made marked improvements in her game since hiring coach Brad Gilbert, a move that saw her win a first major title at the US Open after a revelatory summer swing, but the American faced an undeniably uphill battle ahead of her second Roland Garros semifinal, having one only won of her previous 11 matches with Swiatek. That lone win came last summer on a quick hard court at the Cincinnati Open. The 20-year-old has lost only to Swiatek in her last two trips to Paris, including in 2022 when she reached her first major final.

The challenge only doubled in the face of Swiatek’s sprint into the second week. Since saving a match point against former world No. 1 Naomi Osaka in the second round, the 23-year-old has gotten stronger with each win and racked up three straight 6-0 sets against Anastasia Potapova and Marketa Vondrousova—losing a combined two games in her last two matches.

Swiatek was similarly dominant to start against Gauff, who is guaranteed to rise to a career-high ranking of world No. 2 following Aryna Sabalenka’s quarterfinal exit on Wednesday. The Pole raced off to a 5-1 lead in under 30 minutes and served out the set two games later.

Gauff dropped just one set through an otherwise efficient run to a third straight Grand Slam semifinal, but her frustrations boiled over early in the second set when umpire Aurélie Tourte ruled that an overruled call did not warrant a replay.

Though she channeled her emotions into her first break of the match, Swiatek took over from there, reeling off four straight games as Gauff’s high-risk strategy yielded more errors than winners.

Serving to stay in the match, Gauff saved a match point with a well-struck forehand as Swiatek complained to Tourte about fans waving flags in the stands. Saving a second match point, she held on thanks to a backhand winner to force Swiatek to serve for her spot in the final.

With the pressure on, Swiatek gamely rose to the occasion, earning two more match points on serve. Gauff saved one but overcooked a forehand on the second, sending Swiatek into the fifth major final of her career.

A two-time defending champion, Swiatek has now won 20 straight matches in Paris, and will come into Saturday's final as an overwhelming favorite against Paolini or Andreeva, both of whom will be playing their first Grand Slam final.