"All the pressure's on Iga Swiatek" - Coco Gauff sends out warning ahead of French Open SF against Pole; remains unfazed despite poor record
Coco Gauff sent a warning Iga Swiatek's way, ahead of their semifinal showdown at the 2024 French Open. Gauff and Swiatek will square off in court Philippe Chatrier on Thursday, June 6.
This will be the duo's 12th meeting on the court. Swiatek holds a convincing lead of 10-1 in the head-to-head tally. Additionally, this will be the duo's second straight semifinal contest as they clashed in the last four of the 2024 Italian Open, where the Pole came through 6-4, 6-3.
Swiatek registered a 6-0, 6-2 thumping victory over reigning Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova in the quarterfinals at Roland Garros on Tuesday. Gauff, on the other hand, had to secure a comeback against Tunisia's Ons Jabeur to make it to the semis.
She defeated Jabeur 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 on the back of four break-point conversions. After the match, she interacted with the media about her forthcoming match-up with Swiatek, whom she defeated only once at the 2023 Cincinnati Masters.
Gauff denied carrying any baggage from her earlier showings against the World No. 1 into the semifinal, saying:
"I'm just going in it with confidence. When I played her in Cincinnati, I didn’t go into the match thinking, 'Oh I've never beaten her before, never taken a set off of her'."
The American athlete also suggested that she won't play like Anastasia Potapova, who lost to Swiatek 6-0, 6-0 in the fourth round a couple of days ago, or Marketa Vondrousova. Gauff claimed that the defending champion would carry more expectations on her shoulders.
"I can't think about past players, you know, Potapova isn’t me, I’m not Vondrousova, maybe I could lose with the same score, maybe not. I'm just gonna go in and just try to win. I've nothing to lose, all the pressure's on her," Coco Gauff added.
Coco Gauff: "I have to find a better way to play Iga Swiatek"
In the same conference at the French Open, Coco Gauff accepted she would need to face Iga Swiatek with a game plan different from the previous ones as they didn't yield results.
"I have to find a better way to play her than the last time I played on clay because I've obviously been unsuccessful the last couple of times we played," the American said.
The US Open women's singles champion continued:
"She's definitely a tough opponent for me and for anybody but yeah, I’ll just have to go back and watch and try to find what I have to do. But I’m going to go into the match with a lot of belief that I can."
Notably, Coco Gauff has played against Swiatek four times on clay with her win tally stuck at nil still.