PARIS — Coco Gauff, 18, and Iga Swiatek, 21, have by no means performed singles towards one another on the French Open earlier than their ultimate scheduled for Saturday. However they did come inside one level of doing so in Paris in 2018.
That was the 12 months Gauff received the women’ singles title on the French Open, beating her shut good friend and American compatriot Caty McNally within the ultimate. McNally beat Swiatek within the semifinal, saving a match level.
“I used to be truly getting ready to play her,” Gauff stated of Swiatek. “And Caty saved a match level towards her, and I ended up enjoying Caty within the ultimate.”
Gauff stated she doesn’t know Swiatek nicely, however she has identified her since they each began out on the skilled tour in 2019. “I’ve identified her since she was most likely ranked decrease, and now that she’s No. 1, I’ll say that nothing has actually modified apart from her tennis,” Gauff stated in her information convention forward of the ultimate. “Behind the scenes, she’s as good as I feel you guys see within the press conferences. I feel that’s actually vital and uncommon to see, so I undoubtedly congratulate her on that facet.”
Gauff is 0-2 towards Swiatek on tour, however this might be their first singles match in a Grand Slam event and their first ultimate.
“This ultimate, I imply I would like it for myself, however I feel I’m actually comfortable to play her particularly,” Gauff stated. “I at all times needed to play her in a ultimate, and I knew it was going to occur ultimately simply from, even in juniors, the way in which our video games have been each projecting. I simply didn’t suppose it will occur so quickly.”
Swiatek has actually develop into an everyday in finals. That is her sixth straight ultimate on tour as she has prolonged her successful streak to 34 matches. However she has been monitoring Gauff’s progress as nicely. “For positive I’m fairly comfortable that she’s doing nicely, as a result of I feel she’s additionally had an enormous quantity of stress in her life and being at all times the youngest one and the one that’s imagined to be the longer term,” Swiatek stated. “It will need to have been powerful.”
