The world No. 1 was in action in Paris on Thursday as Ika Sviatek extended her winning streak to 20 matches at the French Open with a 6-2, 6-4 win over Coco Goff. Zviadek is now 11-1 against Goff, who enters the WTA rankings as the No. 2 player following the French Open. Sviatek will play Jasmine Paulini, who beat Mirra Andreeva in straight sets in Saturday’s final. Paolini is the first Italian woman to reach a Grand Slam final in nearly nine years.
His ability to get Switek’s first serve – 68% for the match – and keep the ball in play – 12 unforced errors to Goff’s 36 – led to the straight-set victory. The two-time French Open singles champion dropped just one set en route to the final, becoming only the third woman in the Open era (Monica Celes 1990-92, Justine Henin 2005-07) to win the French Open. Open for three consecutive years. And if she wins Saturday’s final, she will join Henin (4), Steffi Graf (6) and Chris Evert (7) as the only women to win the singles title four times at Roland Garros. And at the age of 23, he is the youngest to reach that mark.
Even as he rises to his highest career ranking, Goff goes back to the drawing board against Svidek. She has now lost three of her last four French Opens to Svidek and has one win in 12 matches against the top-ranked player.
Coff still has some work to do at Roland Garros – she is in the women’s doubles semi-finals with Katerina Siniakova and could still capture her first Grand Slam doubles title.
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Swiatek takes back control of the match
After going down 3-1 after an early second set flurry by Coco Goff, Iga Svitek quickly regained control of the match and now has an eye on a third straight final at Roland Garros. He grabbed two straight breaks and will now try to put one foot in the French Open final at 4-3.
In the second set, Coco Goff went up 3-1
After a testy exchange with the chair umpire following an early call that didn’t go his way — which seemed to indicate that Goff was correct the call was made before hitting a ball — Goff took a break in the second set. 3-1 to take the lead. Composer was the name of the game in that instance as Goff fell behind in that service game before regaining the lead. Timely shotmaking by both players was outstanding throughout the match, which lives up to the billing of the top two in today’s match.
Goff showed some fight in the second set
With bugs still hanging around, Coco Goff seems to have steadied the ship here in the second set. He won 80% of his first serve points in the second, where he is now 2-1 up, and the crowd is getting behind him as the match continues.
Svidek took the first set
After trading two quick holds, Iga Swiatek had the first set in the books on 36 minutes. She had 68% first serve in the first set, but so far Coco Goff’s story has been misses…forced and forced. Gauff had 29 errors in the first set to just 9 for Svidek, putting on a defensive clinic against the reigning US Open champion.
Sviatek took the lead in the first set
More service problems for Gauff lead to a 4-1 Swiatek lead and he is now at two breaks. His movement and ability to dictate the pace on clay were on display in the early part of the tournament, but unforced errors still plagued Goff. There were 9 winners to Svidek’s 2, but Svidek’s quality of defensive play and ball possession was the difference in the first set.
Sviatek takes the lead with a hard grip
Now up 3-1 in the first set after surviving two break points, Svidek has a chance to put the first set almost out of reach. Goff was strong in the first set, but unforced errors – 12 to 4 games to Svidek’s 5, including some long forehands – gave Svidek a big early lead.
Gaff gets on board
Kauff soon found himself in the first set trailing 2-1. Right out of the gate, Goff’s serve isn’t as strong as Switek’s – Goff has won just 40% of his first serves in the first three games, compared to Switek’s 71%.
Swiatek stacked the break
Switek’s early lead is now 2-0 after a tough hold. Despite some unforced errors on Goff’s racquet, she was able to hold on in the second game of the first set, jumping on Switek’s second serve, but the world No.1 was able to hold on.
Swiatek opens with an early break
Goff opened with a tense first service game, missing two first serves and sending two forehands long before Switek opened the match with a break to come out the gate.
69 degrees, clear and sunny in Paris for this hotly anticipated semifinal at Roland Garros
Swiatek and Gauff take to the court
Players warm up on the red clay at Court Philippe Chatrier in Paris. Iga Svitek has won 10 of the 11 matches between the two players, including the last two in Cancun and Beijing in 2023.
The marquee matchup wasn’t the only contest of the day
The winner of the French Open semi-final between the top two seeds in the women’s game will be favored to win Saturday’s Roland Garros should they win a semi-final on the opposite side of the draw. 17-year-old Mirra Andreeva from Russia and 28-year-old Jasmine Paulini from Italy make their first ever Grand Slam semi-final.
A clay goat?
At 22 years old, Iga Svidek has already forged one of the greatest legacies of any clay court player. He has already won the French Open 3 times and entered this semifinal on a 19-match winning streak at Roland Garros. Yes, she will have to face one of the world’s best players in the semi-finals, Coco Gaff, and win another match to win back the Suzanne-Lenglen trophy, but her 4th title in Paris. Already passed Serena Williams (3 French Open titles) on red clay.
Ika Sviatek and Coco Koff face each other in the Roland Garros semifinals.
IGA lead 10-1.
Iga won both times they played here.
Coco’s only win against Iga in that magical run last summer was on hard courts.
