Coco Gauff continued double folding. She kept missing many other strokes. She continued to lose the game in the bundle. Meanwhile, she will sigh, bow her head, and generally look uncomfortable.
What Gough has never done on Wednesday has given up hope or left during the strained Topsitary French open quarter final against another American woman with the Grand Slam title, Madison Keys. In a contest filled with many mistakes, it was Gouf who showed up to acquire eight of the last nine games on his 6-7 (6), 6-4, 6-1 Keys victory and his third trip to the semi-finals at Roland Garros.
“I had it from a young age,” said second-seeded Gouf, who won the 2023 US Open as a teenager and was a French open runner the previous year. “When times get more difficult, I know I can dig deeper into those tough moments.”
Where did it come from?
“Love to win, will to win. It’s not something I’ve been taught. It’s not just that I’ve always had in me, but in everything, not just tennis. I’m a very competitive person,” she said. “My philosophy is that if you can leave everything there, the loss is far less than the regret of not giving everything to you.”
Gauff, 21, had to overcome three double faults in the opening tiebreaker. And he dealt with the first set she dropped in the tournament and the No. 7 seed, a blockbuster key player who recorded 11 Grand Slam wins after winning the title at the Australian Open in January.
They combined 101 unprotected errors with just 40 winners for over two hours under the closed roof of Cote Philippe Chatelier on a drizzling cold day.
“I was trying to fight for all the points,” Gouf said.
Almost half of the game (14 of 29) features serve breaks. However, from the 4-All in the second set, Gauff held four times in a row, pulling away. She created two forced errors in the final set, including one double failure.
After a 4-1 delay in the start and two points after 5-1, Gauff switched to the racket with different tensions in the string to see if that would help.
“Maybe it did, and maybe it didn’t. “Sometimes, things like that might just be mental. I’m like, ‘Oh, I changed the racket, I’m going to play better.’ And you start doing it. I don’t know. ”
She will play for Bath in another major final on Thursday, facing Royce Boson, a 361 rank French wildcard entry, one of the most spectacular runs in tennis history. Boisson beat No. 6 Mirra Andreeva 7-6 (6), 6-3 in the quarter-finals, and followed No. 3 Jessica Pegula’s upset in the fourth round.
Boisson, 22, is the first woman to reach the semi-finals in her grand slam debut since Jennifer Capriati at the 1990 French Open. As loud as it is behind the Boisson, rattling off the crowd 18-year-old Andreva, who provided support to Gauff against Key via a cry of “Allez, Coco!”
The other women’s semi-finals are very match-ups. Three-time defending champion Iga Swiatek vs. No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka. They made progress in the quarterfinals on Tuesday. Sweet was the one who stopped Goff in last year’s semifinals at Roland Garros in the final three years ago.
“There’s a lot to do,” Goff said. Goff lifted his head above his head before spreading his arms after the final point against the key, but “I’m going to taste this today.”
Again, Gauff scrambled like this, getting a racket with a shot from the key and sending it back, often leading to mistakes.
“The court has been a little late and coupled with the fact that she’s covering the court very well, I might be putting a little pressure on me to go a little more for my shot and maybe pushing too quickly,” said Keys, who warned herself with an occasional right foot slap. “There were a lot of points that made me feel like I was playing someone else, I would have scored the points.”
Gauff is 4-0 in the French open carrier when he lost his first set and won the second set. According to an ESPN survey, she is linking her with Elina Svitolina for such a victory, without losses since 2019.
She also became the youngest woman since Martina Hingis (1995-2000) to claim a 25 main draw victory at Roland Garros.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
