Teen Phenom Coco Gauff Is On To Her First Grand Slam Final This Weekend In France
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by Chrös McDougall
Coco Gauff celebrates victory against Martina Trevisan (Italy) during the women's singles semifinals at the 2022 French Open on June 2, 2022 in Paris.
Coco Gauff is going to her first Grand Slam singles final.
The 18-year-old Gauff defeated Italy’s Martina Trevisan 6-3, 6-1 in the French Open women’s semifinals Thursday, sending her on to face Poland’s Iga Swiatek for the championship on Saturday. With the win, Gauff becomes the youngest woman to reach a major final since 2004, when Maria Sharapova did so at Wimbledon at age 17. She’s the youngest woman to reach the final at Roland-Garros since 2001, when Kim Clijsters did it just after her 18th birthday.
The breakthrough has been a long time coming for Gauff.
The native of Delray Beach, Florida, first made waves as a 15-year-old in 2019 when she advanced out of qualifying and eventually reached the fourth round at Wimbledon.
The prodigious start continued when she then made the third round at the US Open before returning to the fourth round at the Australian Open to start the next year. Her best finish prior to this week in a Grand Slam came at last year’s French Open, when she reached the quarterfinals.
That clay-court prowess showed again over the last two weeks in Paris as Gauff, who is seeded 18th, has yet to lose a set in the tournament. However, her path to the final was helped some by early upsets that meant she’s had to face just one seeded opponent in her six matches so far: No. 31 Elise Mertens of Belgium in the fourth round.
That changes in a big way in the final against Swiatek, the tournament’s top seed. Swiatek is the 2020 French Open champ and is unbeaten in her last 34 matches.
Before playing in the singles final, Gauff and partner Jessica Pegula face fellow Americans Taylor Townsend and Madison Keys in the semifinals for women’s doubles on Friday. That final is set for Sunday. Gauff previously made a Grand Slam doubles final with partner Caty McNally at the 2021 US Open.
Gauff had been set to make her Olympic debut last summer in Tokyo but had to withdraw after testing positive for COVID-19.
Chrös McDougall #
Chrös McDougall has covered the Olympic and Paralympic Movement for TeamUSA.org since 2009 on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc. He is based in Minneapolis-St. Paul.
