4 min read
The Roland Garros women’s final will pit top seed Iga Swiatek (UTR Rating 13.39) against first-time major finalist Coco Gauff (12.87). While it feels like Gauff has been on the scene for years, the American is just 18 years old and finished high school less than two weeks ago. Swiatek is going for her second Grand Slam trophy.
Universal Tennis INSIGHTS is predicting a second Roland Garros crown for Swiatek as she's favored at 72%. Let's take a closer look at what you can expect on Saturday.
Swiatek Holds the Edge
Swiatek has the higher UTR Ratings including three-month trending and clay and has two recent wins over the teen. The Pole beat Gauff handily in the round of 16 in Miami this year and defeated her in the Rome semifinals last year. Gauff has yet to win a set over the World No. 1.
Swiatek enters the final on a 34-match win streak dating back to February. The 21-year-old won titles in Doha, Indian Wells, Miami, Stuttgart, and Rome. She is hoping to become the first woman to win six straight titles since Justine Henin in 2007-08.
"Just being able to be in the final again, it's great, especially when I didn't know actually how I'm gonna play here after so many tournaments that I played," Swiatek said. "It seemed kind of obvious for me that the streak may come to an end soon. So I just wanted to take it really step by step. I didn't have any exact goals on this tournament. And just seeing how my game is developing every match, it's something that's giving me a lot of hope, and I'm just proud of myself."
Across the last 15 months, her win-loss record is a whopping 70-16 and she has 28 wins over common opponents with Gauff, who has 16. But this is a Grand Slam final and Swiatek will be a favorite for the first time. When she won Roland Garros in 2020, Swiatek was unseeded and defeated a No. 4-seeded Sofia Kenin. She’s now widely considered the best female player on the planet, especially following Ashleigh Barty’s abrupt departure in March.
Gauff Makes More History
Like Swiatek, Gauff has had a lot of pressure on her young shoulders. Touted as the next big thing in the United States since she was barely into her teens, she first broke through at the Grand Slam level in 2019 by beating Venus Williams at Wimbledon. At just 15, she was the youngest qualifier at Wimbledon in Open era history.
Now ranked No. 23 on the WTA Tour and No. 16 on the UTR Pro Tennis Tour (based on UTR Ratings), Gauff has found her stride in Paris after entering the major with a 14-10 record in 2022.
“Definitely means a lot," Gauff said of reaching the final "I'm so happy, I wasn't expecting it. I'm going to be honest: This year I hadn't had the best results going into this. I feel like I've learned sooner how to handle myself in certain situations than other players have. But I think I'm still learning day in and day out.”
Gauff is the youngest female finalist at Roland Garros since Kim Clijsters in 2001 and the youngest female into any Grand Slam final since Maria Sharapova in 2004, the year she was born.
Readying for the Finale
Both Swiatek and Gauff have been impressive in Paris. Swiatek has dropped just one set, a tiebreak to Qinwen Zheng. Her last two matches have been dominant as she shut out Jessica Pegula 6-3, 6-2, and Daria Kasatkina 6-2, 6-1.
Gauff has yet to drop a set, though she has only needed to face one seeded player, Elise Mertens. She followed the 6-4, 6-0 win over Mertens with a 7-5, 6-2 victory over 2018 finalist Sloane Stephens. Then she eased past Martina Trevisan 6-3, 6-1 in the semifinals.
“If I do lift the trophy, I don't think my life is going to change really," Gauff said. "The people who love me are still going to love me regardless if I lift the trophy or not. Now I'm definitely ready to win but I'm not putting pressure on myself. I think there's a fine line between believing in yourself and almost pushing yourself too much.”
The teen has been even busier than Swiatek as she’s also into the doubles final with Pegula. Gauff and Pegula will take on Kristina Mladenovic and Caroline Garcia in Sunday's doubles final. If Gauff wins both finals, she’ll match Barbora Krejcikova’s feat last year.
The women's singles final takes place on Saturday at 3 p.m. local time (9 a.m. EST).
Stay tuned for more from INSIGHTS, and to learn more about Universal Tennis, click here.
•UTR Ratings and INSIGHTS probabilities as of 8 a.m. EST, June 3, 2022.