PARIS (AP) — Flecks of rust-colored clay dotted Aryna Sabalenka’s back and caked her white shoes as she ripped big shot after big shot against Iga Swiatek on Thursday, the thud of racket-on-string reverberating off the closed roof at the main stadium at Roland Garros.
So used to hearing — and believing — she was a fast-court specialist who couldn’t succeed on the slower red clay used at Roland-Garros, the No. 1-ranked Sabalenka showed just how good she can be on the surface by ending Swiatek’s 26-match unbeaten streak at the French Open and bid for a record fourth consecutive trophy with a 7-6 (1), 4-6, 6-0 win in Thursday’s semifinals.
Now Sabalenka will try to win her fourth Grand Slam title — and first not on a hard court — when she takes on No. 2 Coco Gauff in Saturday’s final. It will be the first title match in Paris between the Nos. 1 and 2 women since 2013 and just the second in the past 30 years.
“It’s going to mean everything to me and my team, because I have to say that almost (my) whole life, I’ve been told (clay) is not my thing, and then I didn’t have any confidence,” Sabalenka said. “In the past — I don’t know how many years — we’ve been able to develop my game so much, so I feel really comfortable on this surface and actually enjoy playing on clay.”
Gauff, a 21-year-old American who was the runner-up in 2022 to Swiatek, reached her second French Open final by beating 361st-ranked French wild-card entry Loïs Boisson 6-1, 6-2 in a far-less-interesting, far-less-competitive semifinal.
“My first final here, I was super nervous, and I kind of wrote myself off before the match even happened,” said Gauff, who is 5-5 against Sabalenka and beat her for the 2023 U.S. Open title at age 19. “Obviously, here, I have a lot more confidence just from playing a Grand Slam final before and doing well in one.”
Much to the chagrin of the 15,000 or so locals pulling for their countrywoman at Court Philippe-Chatrier, Gauff vs. Boisson wasn’t much of a contest, as might be expected from their rankings and relative experience.
Then again, that didn’t stop Boisson from eliminating both No. 3 Jessica Pegula and No. 6 Mirra Andreeva en route to becoming the first woman since 1989 to get to the semifinals in her Grand Slam debut.
Loud as the crowd was, repeatedly singing Boisson’s first name, Gauff’s play spoke volumes, too, as she took 20 of the first 30 points for a 4-0 lead. That pattern held, and by the end, Gauff had claimed 34 of the 51 points that lasted at least five strokes.
Most remarkable about Sabalenka’s win was the way she dominated in crunch time, racing through the last set.
“I mean, 6-love,” she said. “What can I say? Couldn’t be more perfect than that.”
Swiatek’s explanation?
“I lost my intensity a bit,” she said. “Just couldn’t push back.”
This stat says it all: The third set included 12 unforced errors off Swiatek’s racket, and zero off Sabalenka’s.
This continues a rough stretch for Swiatek, a 24-year-old from Poland, who hasn’t reached a final at any tournament since walking away with her third trophy in a row — and fifth Grand Slam title overall — from Paris 12 months ago. She recently slid to No. 5 in the rankings.
Her rut includes a loss in the semifinals at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Later last season, she was suspended for a month after testing positive for a banned substance; her explanation was accepted that the result was caused by a contaminated medicine.
Sabelanka is, unquestionably, as good as it gets in women’s tennis right now.
“She didn’t doubt,” Swiatek said. “She just went for it.”
Even though Sabalenka broke in the first game and soon led 4-1 — at which point Swiatek was glancing up at her coach, Wim Fissette, in the stands, hoping for some sort of insight that could change things — this was not one-way traffic. Swiatek ended up leading 5-4 in that set, but when they got to the tiebreaker, Sabalenka asserted herself.
Did the same in the last set.
“It was a big match, and it felt like a final,” said Sabalenka, who won the Australian Open twice and the U.S. Open once. “But I know that the job is not done yet.”
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AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis
