Iga Swiatek believes she can have a "special rivalry' for years to come with fellow young tennis star Coco Gauff ahead of their French Open final. The world number one tied Serena Willams’ feat of 34 consecutive match wins with yet another victory yesterday, this time over Russia ’s Daria Kasatkina to make her second Grand Slam final.
Her opponent - the young American who after bursting on the scene and defeating the great Venus Williams at Wimbledon at just 15 years of age, will compete for her maiden Grand Slam crown. Although she will head into the showpiece event as the favourite, the red-hot Pole will face a stern test and will need to be at her best to win.
In her column for the BBC , the tennis star, who celebrated her 21st birthday on Tuesday, gave a glowing assessment of her next opponent. “I like watching Coco Gauff - my opponent in the Roland Garros final on Saturday - and maybe this will become a special rivalry for years to come,” Swiatek began. “I feel like she's been on tour longer than me and she's only 18.
“Coco has great potential and I hope she will keep improving. I think this tournament has shown she is on the right path.” The pair have known each other since their days as junior players and Swiatek was one match away from contesting the Roland Garros junior final with Gauff in 2018, which the teenager went on to win.
“I remember Coco winning the French Open juniors in 2018 when I really wanted to win. I didn't play against her, though, because I lost to Caty McNally in the semi-finals,” she added. “But when Coco won - she was only 14 - I was like 'great, I worked so hard and a girl three years younger than me is winning junior Grand Slams'!
“When I got to meet her more on the WTA Tour, I could see she was staying on a really good level and she deserves her success. We don't talk to each other loads when we're at tournaments, just because we're both kind of shy! It is pretty hard for introverted people to bond but I really like her.
“I feel she is really humble and focused on the job. It seems like she is having fun and has good people around her.” Gauff, who has yet to drop a set throughout the fortnight, believes she was destined to meet Iga Swiatek in the French Open final – although maybe not so early in her career.
“I was actually preparing to play her in the final, and then she had a match point against my usual doubles partner, Caty McNally,” Gauff shared. “Caty saved a match point against her and I ended up playing Caty in the final. I’m really happy to play her specifically because I always wanted to play her in a final, and I knew it was going to happen eventually, even in juniors, just from the way our games were both projecting. I just didn’t think it would happen so soon.”
The women's final at Roland Garros will take place on Saturday afternoon at 2pm, and it will be a fascinating watch with these two young stars at the top of their game.
