Swiatek defeats Gauff to make third straight Roland Garros final

World No.1 Iga Swiatek stands a win away from her fourth Roland Garros title after a 6-2, 6-4 victory over No.3 seed Coco Gauff in Thursday's semifinals.

Roland Garros: Scores | Draws

Under bright skies on Court Philippe Chatrier, Poland's Swiatek took 1 hour and 37 minutes to get past American Gauff for the 11th time in their 12 career meetings.

"I think most of the things overall in my game worked today, so I'm proud of myself," Swiatek said after her latest win.

To capture her fifth career Grand Slam title, Swiatek will have to beat first-time Grand Slam finalist Jasmine Paolini of Italy on Saturday. No.12 seed Paolini ousted 17-year-old Mirra Andreeva 6-3, 6-1 in Thursday's second semifinal.

Swiatek has a 2-0 head-to-head lead over Paolini, winning their first meeting at an ITF Challenger event in Prague, on clay, 6-2, 6-1. Swiatek next beat Paolini 6-3, 6-0 in the first round of the 2022 US Open -- an event Swiatek went on to win, for her lone Grand Slam title outside of Paris to date.

Big streaks continue: The numbers continue to build for Swiatek. She is the third player since 2000 to make three consecutive French Open women's singles finals, joining Justine Henin (2005-2007) and Maria Sharapova (2012-2014).

Swiatek has won 20 straight matches at the tournament, making her only the fifth woman in the Open Era to win 20 consecutive matches at Roland Garros. She joins Chris Evert (29 straight, 1984-1991), Monica Seles (25, 1990-1996), Justine Henin (24, 2005-2010), and Stefanie Graf (20, 1987-1989).

The 23-year-old Swiatek is also the second-youngest player in the Open Era to make four French Open finals, older only than Stefanie Graf, who was 20 when she made her fourth Roland Garros final in 1990.

Swiatek is also in the midst of another lengthy clay-court winning streak, having now won 18 straight matches on the surface. This current run ties her longest winning streak on clay, which was 18 straight between Stuttgart and Warsaw in 2022.

"The surface makes my game better," Swiatek said. "My grip allows me to spin more. I can play more defense points because it's a bit slower, but on the other hand, I have also more time to attack sometimes. So I feel like I'm just using it well."

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Tale of the tape: Gauff, who is projected to rise to a career-high World No.2 ranking in the PIF WTA Rankings on Monday, had never won a set off of Swiatek on clay. Indeed, Thursday's match started with an opening set where Swiatek never dropped serve. 

However, Gauff had a chance to turn that stat around in the second set. Gauff broke for a 3-1 lead by dominating a rally, then finding the baseline with a fierce forehand.

However, Swiatek was not fazed and she immediately battled back, using powerful forehands of her own to scoop up four straight games and a 5-3 lead.

"I think I was pretty intense and putting pressure on Coco," Swiatek said. "Even though I got broken [at] the beginning of the second set, I knew that I can come back quickly, and I got my level of intensity a little bit higher to do that."

In the next game, Gauff stared down two match points on her own serve, but the American erased those chances, forcing Swiatek to serve out the match at 5-4. Swiatek was up to the challenge and converted her fourth match point after a Gauff forehand flew out of bounds.

Gauff had 27 winners to Swiatek's 10 in the showdown, but the American also had 39 unforced errors to just 14 from Swiatek. And behind their respective second serves, Swiatek was much more effective, winning 67 percent of those points, while Gauff won 32 percent.