Mission impossible? Regardless of how heavily the odds seemed to be stacked against her, Coco Gauff’s confidence and belief cannot be dented
Iga Swiatek spends her free time doing puzzles (she builds things with Lego bricks).
The rest of the women in the locker room spend their free time trying to solve the puzzle that is Iga: how to beat Poland’s world No.1? So far no one has come up with an answer. On Thursday it is Coco Gauff's turn to try. Again.
Gauff may only be 20 years old but she has been challenging for the big titles since she reached the final here in 2022 (she is the current US Open champion). In that time she has faced Swiatek 11 times and won only the once, in Cincinnati last summer.
For most players, that would be a depressing record to take into a match of today’s importance but Gauff is looking on the bright side.
She may not have been on the professional tour for that long but she has achieved more in her young career than most could ever dream of. Now she needs to use that experience to find a way past the all-conquering Pole.
©Julien Crosnier / FFT“Look, she's obviously No.1 in the world, and she won this tournament three times already,” Gauff said calmly. “I think, for me, I'm just going in 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’. I have nothing to lose. All the pressure is on her.”
Gauff is talking a good fight but putting that positive energy into action on Court Philippe-Chatrier will take some doing. Yet it is the American’s ever-improving mental strength that Swiatek has noted in the past couple of years.
She is impressed. She still keeps beating Gauff but she is impressed nonetheless.
FFT“I don't know if the mental side of my game is something I actively worked on or if it's just maturity over the years,” Gauff said. “I think you just get older and learn how to handle the pressures a little bit more.
“I don't have a mental coach or anything like that, but it is something that I knew I had to improve and just be more positive. I think it just also came with realising that I can't beat myself and also have my opponent beating me.”
Swiatek needed only 102 minutes to power through her last two rounds against Anastasia Potapova and Marketa Vondrousova (she dropped two games) and she is getting better with every round. No matter: Gauff is still not concerned. Every match is winnable so why not this one?
“I can't think of past players,” she said. “Potapova isn't me. I'm not Vondrousova. It doesn't mean anything. Maybe I could lose with the same score, maybe not, but I'm just going to go in and just try to win.”
ROLAND-GARROS
19 May - 8 June 2025
