Iga Swiatek continues Roland Garros demolition, books semifinal vs. Coco Gauff

 Iga Swiatek continues Roland Garros demolition, books semifinal vs. Coco Gauff

The world No. 1 won a third straight 6-0 set and 25 of her last 27 games to put herself two wins away from a fourth victory in Paris, defeating Marketa Vondrousova on Tuesday.

Iga Swiatek continued her march towards a fourth Roland Garros title on Tuesday, dropping a third straight bagel set en route to a 6-0, 6-2 victory over Marketa Vondrousova.

"Honestly, I think everything worked," Swiatek said of her flawless performance on court. "I think I've been serving better than in previous rounds, so that gave me an extra boost of confidence. Overall, I just felt like I'm playing pretty heavy, and I could just play my game, go with my tactics and not really overthink anything."

The top seed won an even 20 games in a row dating back to the end of her third-round victory against Marie Bouzkova—having famously double-bageled Anastasia Potapova in the fourth round—and though Vondrousova was able to get on the board, the reigning Wimbledon champion could do little else to halt Swiatek, who booked her spot in the semifinals after a mere 62 minutes on Court Philippe-Chatrier.

Swiatek will next face No. 3 seed Coco Gauff in a rematch of the 2022 final; Gauff rallied from a set down to defeat Ons Jabeur, 4-6, 6-2, 6-3.

Swiatek’s current dominance is a stark contrast to where she stood in the second round against former world No. 1 Naomi Osaka, who brought her within one point of elimination under the Chatrier roof last Wednesday. Since Swiatek rallied from 2-5 down in the second set to survive Osaka, the double-defending champion has gotten stronger with each set she plays, dropping fewer and games until she didn’t lose any at all against Potapova to reach the quarterfinals.

Vondrousova had never won a set against the world No. 1 in three previous meetings, their first encounter coming in the first round of 2020 Roland Garros, which a then-teenaged Swiatek went on to win for her first of four (and counting) major victories. Their most recent clash came last fall at the WTA Finals, where Swiatek won a 6-0 second set to secure the contest on the way to winning the year-end championships for the first time.

"I feel like way better than anyone else on clay, and especially here," Vondrousova said of Swiatek after the match. "Yeah, it's very tough. You know, I feel like on the court you have nothing to, I don't know, maybe offer or she's just, you know, she's just too strong here.

"Yeah, I didn't, you know, feel bad, but overall, like, in the rallies, I felt like, you know, she's just better. So I think, you know, she was the better one today."

Swiatek picked up right where she left off, both in Cancun and against Potapova, whom the Pole allowed just 10 points on Sunday. Striking a whopping 15 winners to just three unforced errors, she broke serve three times to take bagel the No. 5 in under 30 minutes.

Vondrousova ended Swiatek’s streak of 20 straight games with a hold to open the second set, but quickly fell behind by a break as the match threatened to conclude in under an hour. The Czech held a second time and opened up a 15-30 lead, threatening to hand Swiatek her first break of serve in almost a week, but Swiatek was unflappable, winning seven of the final eight points to reach a third straight semifinal in Paris, and a sixth career major semi. In total, she struck 25 winners to 15 unforced errors while Vondrousova made just 12 winners to 15 unforced errors.

Swiatek will be a heavy favorite in her next round against Gauff, whom she leads 10-1 in their head-to-head and 4-0 on clay. They last played three weeks ago at the Internazionali BNL d'Italia, where Swiatek won in straight sets.