Pressured by Coco Gauff's new game plan, Iga Swiatek rises to the challenge

WATCH: Iga Swiatek meets the media after beating Coco Gauff in the Roland Garros quarterfinals.

Pressure. Outside the lines, pressure is a free-floating, self-orchestrated pendulum that swings from the embraced to the dismissed. Call pressure an illusion–a swirling mélange of perceptions and beliefs. Inside the lines, though, pressure is a reality: an immediate, visceral give-and-take of racquet and ball, time and space where player A and player B, each seek to control the real estate of the court.

In a rematch of last year’s Roland Garros women’s singles final Thursday, Iga Swiatek proved player A, overcoming a strong effort from Coco Gauff to earn a 6-4, 6-2 quarterfinal win in 89 minutes.

Swiatek handily won the 2022 final, 6-1, 6-3. Today’s match was much more competitive.

“I tried to change up a different way of how I played,” said Gauff. “I don't know. Obviously I didn't win, so it didn't work, but I think on certain points it did.”

Throughout the first set, Gauff deployed an intriguing tactical wrinkle, lofting her forehand high and down-the-line to the Swiatek backhand. This form of pressure yielded two dividends: From that spot, Swiatek was far more likely to direct the ball to Gauff’s much stronger backhand. Secondly, the height of Gauff’s ball made it difficult–at least initially–for Swiatek to strike the ball as powerfully as usual. “I was surprised because when I was playing against the wind,” said Swiatek, “sometimes these forehands were just stopping, and you had to work twice to get to them. I don't know if that was her tactics or it just happened because of the wind.”

Though Swiatek took an early 3-1 lead, Gauff’s smart tactic and trademark first-rate court coverage helped her win three of the next four games. With Swiatek serving at 4-4, 15-30, Gauff stood six points away from winning a set versus the Pole for the first time. (Swiatek had won all six of their prior matches.) Unquestionably, Gauff was applying pressure quite well. But Swiatek won that point with a fine forehand passing shot.

From there, everything changed. Swiatek held to go up 5-4. On the first point of Gauff’s service game, Swiatek dashed from one sideline to another to track down an angled forehand volley and hit a down-the-line forehand passing shot winner. Two netted forehands from Gauff and a crosscourt forehand placement capped a seven-point run that closed out the set.

“Little points can always change the momentum of the match, and she takes care of the details well,” Gauff said. “It's something that I do good too, but it's obviously against her I need to do even better.”

One notable data point: Gauff only made 38% of her first serves in the opener. And though she upped that to 57% in the second set, there was little Gauff could do to derail Swiatek by that stage. Gauff’s best chance in the second set came when Swiatek served at 1-1, 15-40. On both points, Gauff missed forehand returns.

With some players, a line-scorching placement is aberrational, a rarity that can be shrugged off. But once Swiatek finds her range, that hardly seems to be the case. Past the pressure of those break points, Swiatek began to swing more freely off both sides, her depth and accuracy far better as she put Gauff on her heels. Rattled by Swiatek’s mid-match improvements, Gauff started to try for more and grew out of rhythm. The intermittently blustery conditions didn’t help either. Serving at 2-3, 15-40, Gauff came to net with a sliced forehand approach shot. Swiatek’s reply was a one-handed backhand slice lob that won the point. Now ahead 6-4, 4-2, she won eight of the next ten points, the last earned by a netted Gauff forehand.

“Obviously there was a game plan, but you obviously have to focus on your end of the court and also on that game plan,” Gauff said. “So I think I was, I guess, trying to find a balance and making sure I continue to do the things I like to do and then trying to force her in positions that she doesn't necessarily like.”

“Well, I think tactically it was a little bit different, but also the conditions, because Coco I think used the wind a little bit more,” Swiatek added. “It was more tight in the first set, so I'm pretty happy in those important moments I was the one that was solid and could put a little more pressure on Coco.”

This was by far Swiatek’s toughest test of the tournament. In her four previous matches, Swiatek had lost only nine games. Next for Swiatek is this year’s breakthrough contender, left-hander Brazilian Beatriz Haddad Maia. “Well, for sure she's the fighter,” Swiatek said, “and she showed even today that she's fighting until the last ball. It pays off.”

The two have only played one another once, Haddad Maia winning it last summer on a windy day in Toronto, 6-4, 3-6, 7-5. Following that match, she said, “It’s a special moment. It's not always easy to beat the No. 1 in the world on a huge stage and against all the crowd.”

So it will go that between now and tomorrow, pressure will occupy its illusory-like state. Then, there will come the reality, pressure played out in one point after another. As the poet T.S. Eliot wrote, “Except for the point, the still point/There would be no dance, and there is only the dance.”

In tennis, though, the dance is one that’s all about disruption.