Six straight wins was the easy part.
Coco Gauff advanced to the French Open final on Thursday with a 6-3, 6-1 win over Italian Martina Trevisan. Now, the 18-year-old phenom faces the top-seeded Iga Swiatek on Saturday with the Roland Garros crown on the line.
Gauff bulldozed through the bottom half of the draw, winning six in a row without dropping a single set and is now one victory away from her first grand slam.
“I’m in a mindset now like: ‘It doesn’t matter.’ I mean, I’m going to be happy, regardless. My parents are going to love me, regardless. So I’m just going to go into it like another match,” the 18th-seeded Gauff told reporters. “I mean, yeah, it’s a Grand Slam final, but there are so many things going on in the world right now, and especially in the U.S. a lot of stuff is happening right now, so I think it’s not important to stress over a tennis match.”
Gauff wrote, “Peace. End gun violence” on a camera after her victory.
Swiatek, the 2020 French Open champ, is on a historic winning steak and is on a clay surface that she routinely dominates on. Swiatek’s 6-2, 6-1 semifinal victory over Daria Kasatkina was her 34th straight win.
It tied her for the second-longest winning streak of the century with Serena Williams and put her one behind the 35-match mark Venus Williams set in 2000.
It is Gauff’s first grand slam final and she is the youngest finalist at the French Open since an 18-year-old Kim Clijsters lost to Jennifer Capriati in 2001.
Gauff and Trevisan were even at 3-all. But Gauff claimed nine of the last 10 games.
Gauff won six of Trevisan’s service games, raising her tournament total to 35 breaks in six matches.
“I’m a little bit in shock right now,” Gauff said with a chuckle after using her still-improving forehand to open up the court and her long-terrific backhand to seal points against Trevisan. “I didn’t know how to react at the end of the match. I have no words to describe how I feel.”
Trevisan is a 28-year-old left-hander who entered the day on a 10-match winning streak, including her first career WTA title at Rabat, Morocco, a week before play began at Roland Garros. She also defeated Gauff the only previous time they played — in the second round in Paris two years ago.
But Gauff is nothing if not a learner and a striver, someone who looks better and better with a racket in her hand each time she takes the court.
— With AP