Will Iga Swiatek extend her Roland Garros winning streak to 20, or will American Coco Gauff have another shot at a Roland Garros title?
On the other side of the 2024 Roland Garros women’s singles draw, upset queens Jasmine Paolini and 17-year-old Mirra Andreeva will meet for only the second time. UTR Sports INSIGHTS previews Thursday’s Roland Garros women's singles semifinals.
(1) Iga Swiatek (UTR Rating 13.27) vs. (3) Coco Gauff (12.79)
Three-time Roland Garros champion Iga Swiatek has been scary good again in Paris.
She has dropped only two games in her last four sets, winning her fourth-round match against Anastasia Potapova 6-0, 6-0, and her semifinal against fifth seed and reigning Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova 6-0, 6-2. Swiatek called her quarterfinal rout "probably the best performance I have had here.”
INSIGHTS is predicting similar success against Gauff, who lost to Swiatek in the 2022 Roland Garros final. Swiatek has beaten the top American women’s singles player 10 of the 11 times they’ve played, and all four times they’ve met on clay.
Mood when you've won 19 in a row in Paris#RolandGarros pic.twitter.com/b1pTZwFn64
— Roland-Garros (@rolandgarros) June 4, 2024
They’ve played twice at Roland Garros, and Swiatek has won all four sets. Gauff battled past two-time Grand Slam finalist Ons Jabeur in three sets to make her second Roland Garros semifinal.
“I have to find a better way to play [Swiatek],” Gauff said.
INSIGHTS has Swiatek as a 75% favorite to reach Saturday’s title match.
(12) Jasmine Paolini(12.57) vs. Mirra Andreeva(12.62)
So much for the big-hitting semifinal between Elena Rybatkina and Aryna Sabalenka. Paolini and Andreeva dashed those plans with huge upsets on Wednesday.
Paolini, the 12th seed in Paris, steadied her game to reach her first Grand Slam semifinal with a 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 win against Rybakina, the 2022 Wimbledon champion who had won 20 of her past 21 matches on clay.
Paolini, who was playing in her maiden Grand Slam quarterfinal, is only the fourth Italian woman to make the Roland Garros semifinals since the Open Era began in 1968.
The touch 🤌#RolandGarros pic.twitter.com/aZgUlVxBkU
— Roland-Garros (@rolandgarros) June 5, 2024
The 28-year-old will meet the unseeded Andreeva, who, at aged 17, is the youngest Grand Slam semifinalist in 27 years, since 16-year-old Martina Hingis in 1997.
Andreeva ousted two-time Australian Open champion Sabalenka 6-7(5), 6-4, 6-4. The youngster is competing in only her fifth major championship and has yet to win a tour-level title. But now she's only two matches away from one of the biggest titles in the sport.
INSIGHTS predicts she'll cut that deficit to one with a win against Paolini. INSIGHTS has Andreeva as a 53% favorite to make the Roland Garros final.