Sports

American teenager Coco Gauff crushed Martina Trevisan to become the youngest French Open finalist in 21 years

Published

2 years ago

June 2, 2022

American teenager Coco Gauff reached her first Grand Slam final with victory in the French Open last four, setting up a tantalising meeting with world number one Iga Swiatek.

Gauff, 18, won 6-3 6-1 against unseeded Italian Martina Trevisan on the Paris clay in her maiden major semi-final..

Swiatek, 21, completed a serene journey into the Roland Garros final with a 6-2 6-1 win over 20th seed Daria Kasatkina.

The Pole earned a 34th successive win to move into her second major final.

Swiatek, the 2020 Roland Garros champion, has dropped just one set this fortnight on the Paris clay.

“It is a pretty special moment and emotional,” said Swiatek, who meets Gauff on Saturday. “I am grateful to be healthy and in that place.”

Gauff, seeded 18th, was the heavy favourite against Trevisan and has become the youngest finalist at Roland Garros since Kim Clijsters in 2001.

Clinical Swiatek matches Serena and has Venus in her sights
Not since Serena Williams in her prime has there been as strong a favourite for a Grand Slam women’s singles title as Swiatek.

In a stunning start to 2022, the Polish player has won five consecutive tournaments – in Doha, Indian Wells, Miami, Stuttgart and Rome – and taken over as the WTA world number one following Ashleigh Barty’s surprise retirement.

A dominating win against Kasatkina moved her alongside Williams in holding the joint second longest streak by any WTA player this century.

Swiatek will equal Venus Williams’ 35-match streak as the longest if she wins the Roland Garros title on Saturday.

Swiatek, like she has in all of her matches so far, started strongly and broke the serve of her opponent at the first opportunity.

Kasatkina responded instantly to wipe that out but the Russian gifted another opportunity to Swiatek at 15-30 in the fifth game when she hit an overhead volley well long.

The gasps of the crowd indicated how bad a miss that was and that proved to be a turning point.

Swiatek punished her further with a forehand winner to break for a 4-2 lead, continuing to swamp Kastakina and clinching a 35-minute set with a crosscourt backhand winner.

Kastakina had actually lost fewer games than Swiatek in reaching the semi-final stage, but found the top seed to be a different class of opponent.

A break for 3-1 in the second set indicated Swiatek was going to forge ahead for a routine win and that proved to be case.

Swiatek seized upon a double fault from Kasatkina for 0-30 at 4-1, whacking clinical winners off both flanks to break and then served out victory with an ace.