Gauff, Swiatek Set Up French Open Quarterfinal Clash
With a spot in the semifinals of the 2023 French Open, American Coco Gauff and Poland’s Iga Swiatek will square off in the quarterfinals on Wednesday.
Gauff booked a spot in the quarterfinals at Roland Garros for the second straight year as she defeated Slovakia’s Anna Karolina Schmiedlova 7-5, 6-2.
“Today was honestly a difficulty match. I mean, as every match is. But the wind was something that I wasn’t really that prepared for it going in,” said Gauff. “The one side was gusting like really crazy. Usually, I like to play in the wind, to be honest, but it wasn’t something I was prepared for. Overall, I’m happy with how I played.”
The sixth-seeded Gauff ripped 22 winners, and won 52 percent of the points on her opponent’s serve to move through in one hour and 31 minutes. She now moves into a showdown with Swiatek, the top-ranked player in the world and the tournament’s defending champion.
Swiatek made her way into the final eight after an injured Lesia Tsurenko retired from the match while down 1-5 in the opening set.
“I have something like [Elena] Rybakina had, a virus or whatever it is,” Tsurenko said afterwards. “My body could not handle it. I did everything possible to manage it, but unfortunately, it’s a different thing just to do normal things and play tennis.”
Swiatek said:
“It’s not nice to finish a match like that,” said Swiatek. “So I hope Lesia is going to be okay and she’ll recover quickly.”
The two-time French Open champion added:
“I don’t want to take this for granted, because I know every tournament is a different story,” said Swiatek. “We all can kind of have really tough opponents even in the first or second round and struggle, because, as well, the beginnings of the tournaments are sometimes tough. But I just feel pretty solid here. I’m happy that I’m in a quarterfinal, and every year I’m going to do my best to always reach these stages.”
