Expert analysis: What can Coco do to stop Iga express?

More recently, she's lost a total of two games across her round of 16 and quarter-final matches to stretch her current overall winning streak to 17 matches (at Roland-Garros, dating to the start of her 2022 title run, she has won 19 in a row, and dropped just two sets across those victories).

So what can Coco Gauff, a player who has lost 10 of 11 matches and all eight sets she has played against the Pole on clay, possibly do to stop the Swiatek express? 

Keep adding weapons 

Keep working hard to augment her game, says her coach Brad Gilbert. 

Gilbert, who coached Gauff to the 2023 US Open title and also guided Andre Agassi to his lone Roland-Garros title in 1999, believes that hard work is the only way to climb the mountain. 

“Anytime someone is in front of you – it’s like what Djoker [Novak Djokovic] had to go through for the longest time – you have to keep working on your game,” he told Rolandgarros.com. “That’s the goal, especially when someone is in front of you in the rankings, or even when people are behind you. 

“If you’re not adding, you’re falling behind. That’s what everything’s about right now. Just to keep improving, you have two players in front of you and one that has a big lead.” 

Gilbert believes that Gauff, who faced Swiatek most recently in the Rome semi-finals last month, where she was defeated 6-4, 6-3, is making progress. 

“I felt like she was a little bit unlucky in that semi,” he said. “A couple different games in that first set could have been different, the 2-0 game, the 4-all… Iga came up with some big shots, and that’s tennis, but each match and each type of court and situation is different. I felt like Coco was getting better each match in Rome, now the thing is to get ready for practice today in Paris, and keep moving forward.” 

Gilbert – naturally – leans hopeful when it comes to his charge. Others, like 18-time major champion Martina Navratilova, know that the gap is wide between the players. 

Navratilova: ramp up the forehand and serve

“I think Iga is such a solid player that she exploits your weaknesses,” Navratilova said. “If you have a weakness, playing against Iga will show it. And so it is for Coco.” 

Navratilova believes that Gauff has to be better on the forehand side to have any chance against the four-time major champion. Swiatek has the game to punish a weak wing, and Thursday’s semi-final will likely hinge on whether or not Gauff can use her forehand as a weapon. Asked what she would advise Coco to do, she said: 

“You've got to improve the forehand somehow. You can get away with beating a lot of people with it, but it's just not as solid as it needs to be at the top of the game for [Coco] to really start dominating. And she can dominate, but the forehand needs to get better. 

“I would tweak the grip a little bit – you don't have to tweak it too much. You can just do it a little bit at a time so that it still feels comfortable. But she needs a bigger sweet spot, a bigger hitting zone on the forehand. It's a small hitting zone with such an extreme grip and it just limits you.”

The two-time Roland-Garros champion would also like to see Gauff serve bigger.

“You don't want to keep harping on it, but [she should] also make her serve into a bigger weapon, a lot more solid,” she said. “She's got the height, the strength and the technique, as well as the physique. I think she just needs to make that serve a little bit more of a weapon, get some free points.” 

In her defense, Gauff has one of the biggest serves in the women’s game – and it is getting bigger. She hit the fastest serve of the tournament, at 205kph, in Tuesday’s quarter-final win over Ons Jabeur, and has made it her mission to get more out of her first serve this season, in general. 

Swiatek: Coco’s tougher to ‘crack’ 

Asked if Coco is a tougher opponent today than she was three years ago, the Polish juggernaut answered in the affirmative. 

“I think so," she said. "I think her mental game is a little bit better, and before it was kind of easier to 'crack her,' I would say, when you were leading. I mean, it's normal that she's making progress. She's at that age that everything goes pretty nicely: if you're working hard, then you will make progress.” 

Swiatek, who has defeated Gauff in each of her last two title runs in Paris, including the 2022 final, believes that Gauff has improved nearly every element of her game. 

“Probably every aspect of her game is a little bit better, because it's different being a teenager on the tour, and then being a more mature player.”