On Thursday, Iga Świątek moved into her first French Open final after defeating Daria Kasatkina 6–2, 6–1. Świątek will face off against Coco Gauff, who advanced to her first Grand Slam final after defeating Martina Trevisan 6–3, 6–1. Sports Illustrated staffers Jon Wertheim and Chris Almeida discuss what it took for each player to reach the Roland Garros final and what’s at stake with a title on the line.
Chris Almeida: So we’re here on Thursday morning American time, Thursday evening Paris time coming off the French Open women’s semifinals. And despite a first week filled with upsets, we’re getting a high-profile final. We’ve got the hottest player in all of tennis, in Iga Świątek, and the, well, it’s not even accurate to call her a recent phenom at this point: Coco Gauff.
Jon Wertheim: You’ve got one player on a 34-match winning streak, and, if she wins the final, she’ll be tied with Venus Williams for the longest win streak in the last quarter century. And then you have Gauff, who is just an absolute joy—a player in ascent, a person in ascent. I don’t think this could have gone much better for her. She has this big breakthrough three years ago and then she doesn’t disappear, but she doesn’t start winning majors. But she had a steady climb, and now it seems like she’s ready. It’s only her 11th major. So it took her a couple of years, but now she’s here.
She's so poised—there's no drama, she's such a great player, she has a great sense of humor and she has a sense of perspective—I just interviewed her [for Tennis Channel]. She walked off the court and signed the camera with “Stop gun violence.” And I asked her: are you cool with talking about that? And she said yes and then gave a two-minute, off-the-cuff monologue about gun violence. She’s really arrived.
CA: In 2019 at Wimbledon, when she made that run to the second week at 16, that was a big shock. And you thought that, maybe, this was a random event. Because, yeah, a few decades ago you’d see a player win a major that early, but that doesn’t happen so much anymore. But she’s done something that is, in my mind, much more impressive: stick around. She’s played well at a number of majors over the past couple of years. She didn’t let the momentum stall. She’s been on this steady, consistent climb. Over the last two years, it’s felt like at almost every major she's been banging on the door of the second week. It hasn’t felt like she’s had so many really bad performances at majors. And even most top-10 players nowadays have really bad showings at the slams.
JW: You’re totally right. I mean, she’s watching Stranger Things and she just graduated from high school. There’s so many players out here, and they don’t look happy and you don’t know whether it’s a conceit, whether they just don’t want to give up anything. Or if they’re genuinely, you know, intense. It’s an intense sport, and if you didn’t know she was a tennis player, you’d think she was just a well-adjusted 18-year-old going about her business. I mean, there’s such a joy to it all. You really hope it lasts. She’s 18. She hasn’t had any injuries. Her parents are both here with her. There's a lot of infrastructure, but that’s part of it, too. She hasn’t won a major yet, but you just have a feeling that everything’s kind of breaking right.
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CA: So we’re both Americans here, but we shouldn’t forget about the non-American in this final, the No. 1 player in the world, Iga Świątek.
JW: She told me she was reading, thematically, The Three Musketeers. We’re in the middle of a major; she’s trying to keep this win streak alive. And, well, what do all athletes do the night before the biggest match of their career? Snuggle up with Alexander Dumas.
CA: Obviously the tennis world is familiar with her by now, and has been for a couple of years since she won the French in 2020. But this is, in a lot of ways, her coming-out party for the more general audience. She’s already won five tournaments this year. When Ash Barty retired earlier in the season, I think we thought, Oh, a shame because she was really the torchbearer for the tour. But then, just like that, we stumble upon somebody who is absolutely dominant. And if Świątek caps off the run that she’s had off with a major win, that makes it all feel much different, much more legit.
JW: I don’t like to brag, but some of us predicted this final. No, but seriously, we had Barty, and she was a worthy No. 1 and she retired. And then it’s sort of well, this Polish player got to No. 1 by default. Well, that lasted about 48 hours, because she just started winning and hasn’t stopped.
This win streak is at 34 matches right now—more than 100 days without losing. It still doesn’t have a major final. So in a way, it’s a weird bit of pressure. But if she does win, then I think we have this Hall of Fame player. Just towering, towering talent. And then we can sort of spin this ahead: She’s won junior Wimbledon, so why can’t she replicate this on grass? So all the pressure is going to be on Iga.
The women’s draw was full of upsets left and right. Naomi Osaka was beaten in the first round. Serena Williams isn’t here. There’s a lot of flux. But in the end, you’re left with a thoroughly compelling final. It’s tennis in a nutshell. It survives in spite of itself.
CA: Also, it has to be said: If Iga does win this next match, gets the major to go with this run, the stratosphere that she’s in with win streaks like these … it’s the Williams Sisters, Federer, Djokovic. … I mean, even Nadal hasn’t enjoyed a streak this long. These are all-time players that she’s in the company of.
