Coco Gauff embraces rematch against No. 1 Iga Swiatek at French Open
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PARIS — The question seems as old as either dirt or time, as if a reporter must have asked it to an athlete almost right after the first humans turned up 200,000 years ago: Whom would you rather play? Which of the two sides of an ongoing or upcoming match would you prefer to face in the next round?
The athlete probably winced back then, too.
Coco Gauff doesn’t dodge questions, though, so when she got a particularly thoughtful version of the question Monday evening after reaching the quarterfinals of the French Open, she deemed it “almost cowardly” to demur or equivocate. She hoped to play the ruthless No. 1 player in the world who swamped Gauff in 68 minutes in the 2022 French Open final, the one who has lost nine games in four rounds in this French Open and against whom Gauff stands 0-6 in matches and 0-12 in sets.
Who wouldn’t?
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“I mean, honestly, since last year I have been wanting to play her, especially at this tournament,” Gauff said of No. 1 Iga Swiatek. It sounded like another revelation of Gauff’s utter lack of timidity, and so here it comes, a granted wish, a rematch in the quarterfinals Wednesday, the 19-year-old Floridian ranked No. 6 and the 22-year-old Pole who hung out at No. 1 long enough to be called a regular. (It’s 62 weeks so far.) Gauff made that choice even though it means the scouting process will require her to re-watch last year’s 6-1, 6-3 dud, which will come up shy of the most fun she ever had.
Once Gauff went through No. 100 Anna Karolina Schmiedlova of Slovakia, 7-5, 6-2, skinning her knee for blood and honor in the process, the reprise waited on Swiatek, who warmed up to play Lesia Tsurenko of Ukraine after winning her first six sets here 6-4, 6-0, 6-4, 6-0, 6-0 and 6-0.
Swiatek led 5-1 when Tsurenko retired because of what she reckoned might be the same virus that caused the withdrawal of 2022 Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina.
“I just feel pretty solid here,” Swiatek said, and uh-oh.
While she has won three Grand Slam tournaments and reached at least the semifinals at three of the four sites, it’s the French where her reign has seen its highest reigning. She won it in the autumn version in 2020 by winning all 14 sets and losing all of 28 games. She won it again in 2022 by winning 14 of 15 sets and losing only 12 games in the so-called hard neighborhood of the last three rounds.
Asked if there came a moment in her career when a Grand Slam quarterfinal began to seem expected, she lampooned herself: “If I would have a quarterfinal at Wimbledon, I would be, like, over the moon and I wouldn’t believe that I’m in that place.” She has graced only one fourth round there, while Gauff has found her way toward the same routine, with this her sixth Grand Slam quarterfinal.
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Gauff expects a lot from Gauff and often serves as her own critic, so she will not be one of those people inclined to peak at No. 4 (her highest ranking to date) and call it the success any normal person would call it. It told much about her last week when she fielded a question about whether her self-criticism might help her keep her top-10 ranking, and she steered the thing in another direction: “I’m going to be honest. I’m not a ranking person at all. So when I made top-10, it was a cool accomplishment, but for me it was never about staying there. I only want to go upward. The goal is number one, and I think that’s when I would care about the ranking, to be honest.” She went on to say that “anything between two and 10, I mean, I’m going to be honest, it’s not that important to me. The biggest goal is to win Grand Slams, and I think the ranking will come with the Grand Slams.”
With that approach, her approach to Swiatek is systematic enough to acknowledge frankly. “I figured that it was going to happen,” she said matter-of-factly of the rematch this year, “because I figured I was going to do well and she was going to do well. Didn’t know what side of the draw we were going to be on, honestly. But I’m the type of mentality that if you want to be the best, you have to beat the best. I think also if you want to improve, you have to play the best. I feel like the way my career has gone so far, if I see a level, and if I’m not quite there at that level, I know I have to improve, and I feel like you don’t really know what you have to improve on until you see that level …
“Yeah,” she concluded, “It would be almost cowardly to say that I want to not face the noise and not face the challenge, but I’m up for it. I have improved a lot since last year, and she has, too. It would be a great battle for us and for the fans, too.”
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So bring it on and right on to any necessary weeping, the way Gauff’s weep last year told of her seriousness, how she could weep over losing to a player on a 35-match winning streak that culled six tournament trophies. Gauff has stressed that she pushed that final into the past even while having to peek at it again now, while Swiatek noted: “Last year, you know, it was a final. So I think, you know, finals have kind of different rules.” This will be a quarterfinal where Gauff dares to hope someone different rules, which makes clear her intentions in life.
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Source: The Washington Post
