Iga Swiatek sweeps past Coco Gauff to reach French Open semi-finals

Iga Swiatek maintained her dominance both at Roland Garros and in her personal battle with Coco Gauff as she returned to the French Open semi-finals for the third time in her young career. A rematch of last year’s final yielded a similar result as Swiatek, the defending champion, extended her head-to‑head record against Gauff to 7-0 with a 6-4, 6-2 win.

Swiatek will next face Beatriz Haddad Maia, the 14th seed, for a place in the final after Haddad Maia recovered from a set down to defeat Ons Jabeur 3-6, 7-6 (5), 6-1 and reach her first grand slam semi-final.

Swiatek and Aryna Sabalenka, who will play the unseeded Czech Karolina Muchova, are a round away from facing each other in a monumental final.

While matches between Swiatek and Gauff – the world No 1 against the best teenager in the world – are exciting on paper, their contests have been incredibly one-sided so far in reality. Swiatek, owner of the heaviest forehand in the game, has spent much of the past 12 months eviscerating Gauff’s forehand and she has now won all 14 sets.

To Gauff’s credit, she showed her adaptability by making significant adjustments to her tactics. While she was unusually aggressive with her return of serve and she used her drop shot well, the biggest shift was how she constantly threw up high, loopy forehands.

In the swirling wind, Swiatek was initially unsure of whether to take the no-pace balls early or shuffle far behind the baseline until the ball dropped. As she tried to hit through Gauff’s excellent defence, Swiatek frequently overhit. “I was surprised because when I was playing against the wind, sometimes these forehands were just stopping, and you had to work twice to kind of get to them,” said Swiatek.

The pair found themselves at