PARIS, 7 Jun: This felt like a game Coco Gauff simply needed to claim if she intended to finally win a set, let alone a match, against No. 1 Iga Swiatek.
\nWith shouts of \u201cGo, Coco!\u201d and \u201cAllez, Coco!\u201d emanating from the Court Philippe Chatrier stands, Gauff frittered away two break points as Swiatek served at 1-all. Then, at deuce, came the most memorable moment of Wednesday afternoon \u2014 and, while Gauff won the point, it soon would be Swiatek who seized complete control of this French Open quarterfinal that was a rematch of last year\u2019s final.
\nDuring a 14-stroke exchange, both women made their way to the net, and Gauff directed a swinging backhand volley right at Swiatek. The ball struck Swiatek\u2019s right leg, and she tumbled back onto the red clay, leaving rust remnants on her white dress and arm. That set up a third break chance for Gauff, but the 19-year-old American again failed to convert, and while it soon was 2-all, Swiatek pulled away from there to a 6-4, 6-2 victory.
\n\u201cQuarterfinals are sometimes the toughest matches,\u201d said Swiatek, a 22-year-old from Poland who is seeking a third title at Roland Garros and fourth Grand Slam trophy overall. \u201cEven though she\u2019s young, she\u2019s experienced. I\u2019m pretty happy to be in the semifinal.\u201d
\nSwiatek is now 7-0 against No. 6 Gauff and has won all 14 sets they\u2019ve played against each other; that includes a 6-1, 6-3 victory for the 2022 championship in Paris.
\nOn Thursday, Swiatek will meet No. 14 seed Beatriz Haddad Maia, the first woman from Brazil to reach a Grand Slam semifinal in 55 years. The other women\u2019s matchup for a berth in the title match will be No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka, who won the Australian Open in January, against unseeded Karolina Muchova of the Czech Republic.
\nIn the men\u2019s quarterfinals later Wednesday, No. 22 Alexander Zverev faced Tomas Martin Etcheverry, before No. 4 Casper Ruud took on No. 6 Holger Rune at night. One semifinal is set: No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz vs. No. 3 Novak Djokovic.
\nHaddad Maia advanced by coming back for a 3-6, 7-6 (5), 6-1 victory over No. 7 Ons Jabeur, a two-time major runner-up in 2022.
\nHaddad Maia is a 27-year-old left-hander who was given a 10-month suspension after failing a doping test in 2019. She arrived in Paris with a 7-11 record at majors, never winning so much as one second-round match, until this 5-0 run.
\n\u201cOne of my qualities,\u201d Haddad Maia said, \u201cis that I wait and I\u2019m very patient and I never give up.\u201d
\nBefore even knowing she would face Swiatek, Gauff spoke about hoping for that opportunity. Didn\u2019t matter how lopsided their head-to-head series has been \u2014 Gauff insisted she wanted another shot at Swiatek, who has topped the rankings for more than a year.
\nThis one was even early, at 4-4 in the first set, before Swiatek edged ahead. First she held, then she broke at love, smacking a cross-court forehand to own that set, then raising her right fist and shaking it.
\nSwiatek\u2019s heavy-topspin forehand is probably her best shot. That stroke also happens to be Gauff\u2019s weaker side. A glance at the stats demons-trated that: Swiatek finished with a 12-1 advantage in forehand winners.
\nAfter dusting herself off when she got hit by the ball off Gauff\u2019s racket in the second set, it was Swiatek whose play got better, if anything. And it was Gauff, wearing a bandage on her right knee after scraping it in her previous match, who began having trouble with shot selection and execution.
\nBy the end, Gauff had far more unforced errors, 23, than winners, 13.
\nYet to drop a set in the tournament, Swiatek broke to go up 4-2 in the second with the help of a double-fault, and again in the last game with the help of another double-fault. (AP)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
PARIS, 7 Jun: This felt like a game Coco Gauff simply needed to claim if she intended to finally win a set, let alone a match, against No. 1 Iga Swiatek. With shouts of \u201cGo, Coco!\u201d and \u201cAllez, Coco!\u201d emanating from the Court Philippe Chatrier stands, Gauff frittered away two break points as Swiatek served […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-217989","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217989\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}