Coco Gauff loses at French Open to reigning champion Iga Swiatek

PARIS — PARIS (AP) — Iga Swiatek is as good as it gets in tennis at the moment, especially at the French Open. Been that way for quite some time. So her unyielding success against Coco Gauff just about everywhere — and certainly at Roland Garros — should come as no surprise by now.

Swiatek continued her mastery over Gauff and extended her winning streak in Paris to 20 matches with a 6-2, 6-4 victory in the semifinals on Thursday.

“For sure, it was intense,” said the No. 1-ranked Swiatek, who claimed five of the last six games after trailing 3-1 in the second set. “I’m happy that I just was consistent with my tactics and didn’t overthink stuff and just went for it at the end.”

In Saturday’s title match, Swiatek will face No. 12 Jasmine Paolini of Italy, a 6-3, 6-1 winner against unseeded 17-year-old Mirra Andreeva of Russia in the second semifinal.

Swiatek, who turned 23 last week, is trying to earn her fourth championship in five years at the French Open and can become the first woman with three in a row since Justine Henin from 2005-07. For Paolini, this will be her first Grand Slam final; she never even had made it past the second round in any of her initial 16 appearances at majors until getting to the fourth round at the Australian Open in January.

Swiatek improved to 11-1 overall against No. 3 seed Gauff, the reigning U.S. Open champion. That is more victories than Swiatek has accumulated against any other player — and includes head-to-head wins at the clay-court Grand Slam tournament three years in a row, including in the 2022 final and last year’s quarterfinals.