After a dramatic Wednesday that saw Aryna Sabalenka and Elena Rybakina both lose, Iga Swiatek is now a massive favourite to defend her title again. She will play Coco Gauff in what feels like a de facto final when Jasmine Paolini or Mirra Andreeva will be on the other side of the court on Saturday afternoon.
Swiatek has made the most of her lucky second round escape by firing through the draw since. An opening set bagel saw her extend a winning streak in games to 20 before Marketa Vondrousova finally got on the board. The Pole hit 25 winners overall in the 6-0 6-2 victory, making a slam winner and Top 5 seed look very ordinary. “I’m happy that I kept my focus because sometimes I felt like the game was really intense and sometimes the intensity went down a little bit, so I wanted to really play my game no matter what was coming back from Marketa. I felt like I was in a zone today.” she said.
After four straight forward matches, Gauff did face a bit of adversity in the quarter finals. She had to come from a set down to beat Ons Jabeur, eventually taking the match 4-6 6-2 6-3. It was an uncharacteristically sloppy start for the American, who hit 14 unforced errors in the opening set. Gauff will now actually be No. 2 for the first time after Aryna Sabalenka’s quarter final exit.
Gauff won’t check out mentally in this one despite having a head-to-head record that wouldn’t make doing so surprising. It now stands at 10-1 in Swiatek’s favour with the Pole’s game neutralising her main strengths and not offering enough aggression to throw the top seed off. Their meeting in Rome this year was close but when it came down to the business end of both sets, Gauff did not have enough and fell to a 6-4 6-3 loss. It’s hard to see a match on clay between the two ending any other way than a Swiatek win without the Pole having an absolutely nightmare of a match.
Prediction – Iga Swiatek in straight sets
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