PARIS: Coco Gauff brought a quick end to surprise French hero Lois Boisson´s improbable run at Roland Garros on Thursday to set up a final against world number one Aryna Sabalenka.
Gauff dominated from the outset on Court Philippe Chatrier and pulled away to a 6-1, 6-2 victory to extinguish the host nation´s hopes of a first French Open winner since Mary Pierce in 2000.
The 21-year-old Gauff is through to her third Grand Slam singles final. She finished runner-up to Iga Swiatek at Roland Garros three years ago before beating Sabalenka to win the 2023 US Open.
“Obviously there´s still a lot of work to do, but for now I´ll enjoy this one and then prepare for the final tomorrow,” she said. For Boisson, 22, it marked a disappointing finish to a remarkable first Grand Slam appearance, a year after missing out because of a serious knee injury.
The world number 361 had never played a top-50 opponent before this week. Boisson dumped out two in the top 10 in third-ranked Jessica Pegula and world number six Mirra Andreeva to set up her last-four clash with Gauff.
But Gauff proved a hurdle too far for a player who only had one WTA tour-level win before the start of the tournament. Boisson´s entrance on court drew huge roars from a crowd filling back up after watching Sabalenka knock out three-time reigning champion Swiatek in the first semi-final.
Cheers greeted each of Boisson´s returns during the warm-up, but it was Gauff who hit the ground running with a break of serve in the opening game. The American second seed followed a comfortable hold with another break to dampen home spirits as the rain began to pound heavily on the closed roof.
Boisson passed up three break points in the fourth game before finally getting on the board after Gauff had raced into a 4-0 lead. Gauff wrapped up the set with little fuss though following another break, subduing a partisan crowd that helped spur Boisson past Andreeva in the quarter-finals.
After an exchange of holds to begin the second set, Boisson couldn´t capitalise on a break point in the third game as she fired a forehand low into the net. Gauff broke for a 3-1 cushion only to hand the advantage right back the next game.
With Boisson struggling for the consistency of earlier rounds, Gauff soon seized control again with her fifth break of the match for a 4-2 edge. Boisson could not produce one last act of defying the odds as Gauff pocketed the final two games to seal a comfortable victory.
Swiatek ‘playing better’ despite end of French Open reign Iga Swiatek said she “played better” at Roland Garros than in recent tournaments despite seeing her tilt at a fourth straight French Open title blown away in devastating fashion by Aryna Sabalenka on Thursday.
The 24-year-old saw her winning streak in the event ended at 26 matches by Sabalenka in the semi-finals, suffering just the third defeat of her career at the clay-court Grand Slam.
Swiatek, who won a treble of the Madrid, Italian and French Opens on clay last year, has not reached a WTA final since and is set to drop to seventh in the world rankings. But she looked more like her old self in Paris, right up until she collapsed in the deciding set against Sabalenka.
“I played some quality matches. Now it´s probably not the best time to look at the wider perspective,” said Swiatek. “So probably it wasn´t a bad tournament, but obviously not the result I wanted…
“I love playing here, so for sure I´m happy that I was fortunate enough to play so many great tournaments here. “Even this one, I feel like I played better than weeks before. I´m just happy that I have this place to come back to every year and just try to push myself.”
“Hopefully we´re going to have some decent kind of little pre-season on grass, because it´s always been pretty hard to have that, especially when I want to be a little bit at home (after Roland Garros),” Swiatek said. “But I don´t feel like I need to be home right now, so maybe I´ll go somewhere in Europe, practise.”
