Coco Gauff will face world number one Inga Swietec for the French Open title after the teenager eased into her first Grand Slam final with a straight-sets win over Martina Trevison on Thursday. The 18-year-old American claimed a 6-3, 6-1 victory in a nerve-wracking match that saw both players reach a major semi-final for the first time. Gauff is the youngest Grand Slam finalist since Maria Sharapova won Wimbledon in 2004. “I guess I’m in a little bit of a shock right now,” Gough said. I didn’t know how to react after the match. I’m lost for words.”
The players made 37 unforced errors between them in the poor first set before Gough took the lead in the second set.
The 18th seed will be a heavy underdog in Saturday’s showpiece match against Swietec, who are on a 34-match winning streak.
But she will have nothing to lose as she beats Serena Williams in London 18 years ago in a bid to become the youngest Slam winner since Sharapova.
“I’m just going to go into it like another match,” Gauff said.
“Yeah, it’s a Grand Slam final, but there’s a lot of things going on in the world at the moment, especially in the US, so I don’t think it’s worth stressing about.”
Unseeded Italian Trevisan saw the end of his finest tournament and 10-match unbeaten run on a whim, as he served four double faults and made 36 unforced errors.
Gough made a quick start and applied the brakes for an early lead in the third game.
However, after failing to persuade the umpire to overturn a controversial line call, errors were cleared from both players’ rackets.
But Gauff prepared himself to take over the set by running three games in a row.
Trevison was broken four times in a row, winning just three points in those games as his serve was torn apart.
The world number 59 took a medical timeout before the second set, but Gough took complete control of the match when she won 14 minutes of the game with a backhand winner to lead 3-1.
publicized
She went on to secure one final berth in style, before falling out again before the clutches of love.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Topics mentioned in this article