The absence of Rafael Nadal will be keenly felt at Roland Garros this weekend, but anyone seeking the comfort of the familiar need not look far.
Iga Swiatek may have a way to go before matching the Spaniard’s dominance on the Parisian clay but, after defeating Coco Gauff in straight sets in Thursday’s semi-finals, she will have the opportunity to compete for a fourth French Open title in five years when she faces Italy’s Jasmine Paolini in two days’ time. Given that she has just turned 23 – like Nadal, she celebrates her birthday during the fortnight – another win would see Swiatek equal her childhood idol’s record at the same age.
“I would never expect anybody to compare me to Rafa, because for me he’s above everybody and he’s a total legend,” said the Polish world No 1. “I’m proud of myself that I’m playing consistently here and that I’m even mentioned in the same sentence as Rafa.”
If she continues in her present vein, Swiatek is likely to find herself in many such sentences in years to come. The defending champion’s 6-2, 6-4 success against Gauff was her 20th in a row at Roland Garros, where she is bidding to become the first woman since Justine Henin to win three straight titles. Having won the WTA 1000 events in Madrid and Rome on the road to Paris, she is also riding an 18-match winning streak on clay. Not quite Nadal’s 81 consecutive victories on the surface, let alone Chris Evert’s 125, but she is certainly on the right track.
“This surface makes my game better,” said Swiatek. “My grip allows me to spin more. I can play more defence points because it’s a bit slower, but on the other hand I also get also more time to attack.”
She did plenty of both against Gauff, who set out to play on the front foot but was in trouble from the moment she sent a drive volley sailing over the baseline to drop her opening service game. Having lost all but one of her previous 11 meetings with Swiatek – including two on Court Philippe Chatrier, in the 2022 final and last year’s quarter-finals – the 20-year-old’s predicament was clear. To buck the trend, she had to try something different.
Naomi Osaka established a template for success with her near-miss against Swiatek in the second round but, for all the virtues of Gauff’s game, she does not possess Osaka’s ability to combine raw power with consistency off the ground. As her victory over Aryna Sabalenka in last year’s US Open final demonstrated, the Atlantan is at her best when absorbing pace and counter-punching. So while her enterprise was admirable, Gauff’s final tally of 39 unforced errors to 27 winners was symptomatic of a flawed game plan, particularly on a clay court, and especially against Swiatek.
It was no coincidence that Gauff’s best phase of the match came when she began to play with greater patience. That came in the early stages of the second set, where she established a 3-1 lead despite a moment of controversy that left her in tears.
When a Swiatek serve was incorrectly called long, the chair umpire, Aurélie Tourte, swiftly intervened to correct the mistake, but ruled that the line judge’s intervention had not affected Gauff’s missed return and should not be replayed. The American pleaded her case, arguing that the call had come in unison with her attempt to play the ball, but her objections fell on deaf ears. TV evidence suggested she had a point, and afterwards Gauff’s bemoaned the sport’s failure to employ technology in such circumstances.
“It’s almost ridiculous that we don’t have it,” said Gauff, who will rise to a career-high ranking of No 2 next week. “Every sport has it. There are so many decisions that are made, and it sucks as a player to go online and you see that you were completely right.
“In situations, you can call for the supervisor, but there’s not much they can do from that standpoint. So I definitely think as a sport we have to evolve. We have the technology, they’re showing it on TV, so I don’t get why the player can’t see it.”
In the second semi-final, Paolini’s experience told against Mirra Andreeva, the 17-year-old Russian who defeated an off-colour Aryna Sabalenka on Wednesday. Paolini seized the initiative with an early break, and although Andreeva fashioned five opportunities to get the opening set back on serve, the 12th-seeded Italian averted the danger with trademark tenacity. The 28-year-old then reeled off six games in a row to complete a 6-3, 6-1 victory and become the first Italian woman to reach a final at Roland Garros since Sara Errani in 2012. Not bad for a player who had never advanced beyond the second round of a major before this year.
“It’s a great feeling to be in a grand slam final,” said Paolini. “It seems something impossible, you know, but it’s true, so I’m really happy to be in this position.”
Paolini’s breakout year began with a run to the last 16 of the Australian Open and a first WTA 1000 title in Dubai. Having started the season ranked 29th, she will be a top-10 player when the new ranking list is published next week. In two days’ time, however, she will face one of the toughest challenges in tennis: Swiatek, on Chatrier, in the French Open final.
The locals have a verb, “Nadaliser”, that they have traditionally used to describe Nadal’s domination on the red clay where he has won 14 of his 22 grand slam titles. It will be of little comfort to Paolini that they are now repurposing that word to characterise Swiatek’s supremacy at Roland Garros. On Saturday, we shall see if the Italian can avoid being Nadalised.