Coco Gauff surged into the final at the French Open on Thursday with an impressive 6-3, 6-1 demolition of the unseeded Italian Martina Trevisan.
Both players, featuring in their first semi-final at a Grand Slam tournament, displayed nerves during the opening half hour of the match on centre court.
The 18-year-old American complained about Trevisan's screams after hitting the ball and several line calls. Trevisan's lament was about her service which she lost four times during Gauff's ascent to the set.
But if the serves were faltering during the opener, the ferocity of the ground strokes remained intense.
The question for the debutantes was who could hold serve consistently in the second?
Both began with confidence. Trevisan, who had her right leg heavily strapped at the end of the first set, showed few signs of reduced mobility as she levelled at 1-1.
Gauff, seeded 18th, started to play the patience game of testing the sturdiness of Trevisan's limb with ground strokes that kept her pinned back and running from side to side on the baseline.
Stability
After holding for a 2-1 lead, Gauff broke her 28-year-old opponent and confirmed the break for 4-1.
Maintaining the same power plan of patience and penetration, she captured Trevisan's service again and served out with no little panache to set up a Saturday afternoon showdown with the top seed Iga Swiatek, who was just as clinical in her 6-2, 6-1 destruction of the 20th seed Daria Kasatkina.
"Yeah, it's a Grand Slam final," said Gauff of her impending appointment with a woman on a 34-game winning streak.
"It doesn't matter. There's a lot of stuff happening in the world, especially in the United States. It's important not to stress about a tennis match."
