Iga Swiatek continues to dominate Coco Gauff, but she’s also making her a better player

“Against probably anybody else today, I would have won the match,” the American said following their Rome semifinal.

Serving at 4-4 in the first set against Iga Swiatek in Rome on Thursday, Coco Gauff looked and sounded confident. She reached 40-0 with an ace that touched down on the T, and followed it up with a forceful “Come on!” She seemed sure to hold and go up 5-4.

On the next point, Gauff got a look at a mid-court backhand. She had been pounding that shot relentlessly through the first eight games, leaping into it, taking it down the line, hitting winners with it—and, yes, making some errors, too. This time, she tried something different, a drop shot. She hit it cleanly, but not quite high enough, and it found the tape. The commentators calling the match agreed that it was a good miss, and that mixing it up would pay dividends for her in the long run. I thought the same thing at the time.

Unfortunately, I don’t think that now, and I doubt Gauff does, either. On the next point, at 40-15, she rushed and overhit a backhand into the net. At 40-30, Swiatek blocked a return back that was coming at her head, then fired a forehand winner to make it deuce. Then Gauff double-faulted two straight times to lose the game.

Swiatek had the break she was looking for, and we all know what happens after that—she runs away with the match. A few minutes later, she won the first set 6-4, and she went on to win the second 6-3. Gauff opened the door by a millimeter with that drop-shot miss, and Swiatek barged through it, the way No. 1 players tend to do.

Iga is Coco’s mountain to climb, the biggest obstacle between her and a multi-Slam future.

I mention that moment not just because it was an inflection point in the match, but also because it shows how little margin for error Gauff has against Swiatek on clay. That’s true for virtually all of Swiatek’s opponents, but especially so for the American, who is now 1-10 against the Pole, and 0-4 on dirt. Iga is Coco’s mountain to climb, the biggest obstacle between her and a multi-Slam future.

This was their first meeting of 2024, and Gauff obviously came in with a strike-first game plan designed specifically for this opponent. She went bigger than normal on her serve. She leaned—or jumped—into her backhand, and wasn’t afraid to go down the line when she had the chance. She was just as aggressive with her forehand. Normally, Gauff tends to let this shot come to her, and ends up swinging at it defensively, and from too close to her body. This time she took it early, with a full cut, and aimed for the corners. For much of the day, Gauff gave as good as as she got with Swiatek from the baseline, which hasn’t often been the case in the past.

“I thought I played well the majority of the match,” Gauff said. “Against probably anybody else today, I would have won the match.”

“I wanted to be aggressive, which I felt like I did. I think I missed some balls in some clutch moments. That’s what being aggressive is. I think if I continue to play in this way, I’ll be more consistent in that.”