COCO GAUFF ON HER ROLAND-GARROS GOALS, LOVE FOR RED CLAY AND HOW HER PARENTS CONTINUE TO SHAPE WHO SHE IS – EXCLUSIVE

Red clay is home to a lot of “firsts” for tennis star Coco Gauff.

“Red clay is honestly something that I grew up on, something I’ve been playing on since I was ten years old,” she told Olympics.com in a recent exclusive interview.

“It’s always the first for me, my breakout [surface]: My first junior Grand Slam was on red clay. My first major quarter-final was on red clay, my first final… It’s a lot of ‘firsts’ for me on the surface and [that] gives me a lot of confidence.”

This was a few weeks ago, at the Madrid Open, but on Thursday (6 June), the 2023 US Open champion will play in her third-consecutive major semi-final, taking on three-time and reigning Roland-Garros winner Iga Swiatek, the world No.1, for a spot in Saturday’s championship match.

“The goal is to win French Open,” Gauff told us in Madrid, adding: “One day… and hopefully it can be this year.”

She’s two match wins away, but Swiatek offers the steepest test today in women’s tennis, having won her last 17 matches in a row (all on red clay), and tallying a 33-2 record in Paris overall.

Gauff is 1-10 in her career against the Pole, including a loss at Rome earlier this year on clay.

The world No.3 knows she has a tall task in front of her, but also isn’t suppressing her Parisian desires: “Everybody knows I want to go all the way,” she told reporters Tuesday (4 June) after beating Ons Jabeur.