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World No. 1 Iga Swiatek sailed into her second French Open final in three years with a dominant 6-2, 6-1 win against Daria Kasatkina in Thursday’s first semifinal.
She’ll be joined in Saturday’s championship by Coco Gauff. The American teenager bested Martina Trevisan 6-3, 6-1 in the second semifinal to reach her first Grand Slam final.
Swiatek becomes the first player to reach six or more finals on the WTA Tour in the first six months of the year since Serena Williams did it back in 2013. Williams reached seven WTA finals in the first half of that year.
The semifinal marked her 34th straight match win, which tied Swiatek with Serena Williams for the second-longest WTA winning streak since 2000. With one more, she’ll tie Venus Williams with 35 wins.
“I try to treat every match the same way,” said Swiatek in the on-court interview after her match. “Basically I’m trying to be really focused on the tasks.”
Thursday’s match lasted 64 minutes and was punctuated by an ace from Swiatek to take the victory. In total, she tallied 22 winners to 13 unforced errors.
The Polish star has won 54 of her last 56 matches, dropping just one in this tournament to Zheng Qinwen in the round of 16.
Gauff, meanwhile, becomes the youngest Grand Slam finalist in 18 years. The 18-year-old also becomes the youngest American finalist since Serena Williams won the 1999 US Open at 17 years old.
She also makes it 2-for-2 for Americans in Grand Slam finals this year, with Danielle Collins reaching the final at the Australian Open. Collins lost that match to Ash Barty.
After her match, Gauff said in her on-court interview that while she’s excited to play in the final, she is going to be “happy regardless” of the result.
“I’m just gonna go into it like any other match,” she said. “Yeah it’s a Grand Slam final, but there’s so many things going on in the world right now — especially in the U.S. — a lot of stuff is happening right now. So I think it’s not important to stress over a tennis match.”
Gauff later wrote “End Gun Violence” on the courtside camera.
After advancing to the biggest match of her career, Coco Gauff wrote “End gun violence” on the camera 🙌 pic.twitter.com/7O0avmtq1C— D'Arcy Maine (@darcymaine_espn) June 2, 2022
After advancing to the biggest match of her career, Coco Gauff wrote “End gun violence” on the camera 🙌 pic.twitter.com/7O0avmtq1C