Bill Simons
Paris
COCO HAS AN IGA PROBLEM: Oh, my God, Coco Gauff has played Iga Swiatek seven times. She’s lost each time and hasn’t won a set. Plus, she’s been on the circuit for four years, and the kid, who shocked the world when at 15 she rocked Wimbledon, hasn’t won a Slam. The sky is falling, right?
Hold on, hold on! Let’s stop this article right now and get real. Coco’s just 19. She’s long been No. 6 in the world. Again this year she was the last American man or woman in the singles draw, and, with Jessica Pegula, is into the women’s doubles semis.
But today, after 1:26 of battling against the world No. 1, she marched off the court without even a wave to the Parisians who so often had shouted, “Allez, Coco!” Her 6-4, 6-2 loss was a devastating blow. She stated the obvious: “When you lose to someone seven times, it feels crappy.” But the loss was hardly for lack of effort.
Coco knew she couldn’t just camp out on the baseline and trade forehands with Swiatek. She tried to take it to the Pole. She hit deep and served big. She rushed the net and, as usual, called on her wicked backhand, her speed and her athleticism and tried to dictate.
But she lost her serve early. Her fans fretted. Would this be yet another rout like last year’s final, where Iga had humbled her 6-1, 6-3?
But Coco had said, “F–k the French final.” She was tired of hearing about the biggest shortfall of her career. In Paris she said, ”I would be a coward if I didn’t want to play her…To be the best you have to beat the best.”
And, in the first set, Gauff called on her best to break Iga back and even the score. But at 4-4, Swiatek, in her trademark white baseball cap and all white outfit, was all business. She did what all great champions do. She lifted her game. Despite blustery winds, her forehands landed deep. Her return of serve was imposing, her seamless anticipation was uncanny, she hit the corners with the precision of a Chopin sonata.
Coco had plenty of opportunities. But many of her good shots didn’t yield great rewards. She muffed some important points, and early in the second set she failed to claim break points against the Roland Garros defending champ.
Yes, in her match, Coco gained far more games than any of Iga’s earlier foes. And a quarterfinal run has great merit.
But Americans demand winners – and Mademoiselle Gauff has yet to lift a Slam trophy. But so what? She’s just 19, she’s got game and a huge window of opportunity. And, by the way, in this post-Serena era, Coco is the most charismatic player in the WTA. Not only is she uber-athletic, she’s one of the most thoughtful and courageous of athletes in the press room. Plus, she’s a fun-loving student of pop culture and social media, and her insights on serious issues often astound. She’s 19 going on 40. And early in the tourney Russian Mirra Andeeva said what so many have long thought: “She has the most beautiful face.”
Coco Gauff lost a tennis match today, but long ago she impressed fans around the world. That’s why she’s so beloved.
THE MINISTER OF HAPPINESS IS NOT HAPPY: Beatriz Haddad Maia became the first Brazilian to reach a Slam final since the legendary Maria Bueno in 1968. The left-handed Haddad Maia is a comeback artist. She had been down a set in her past two matches. Her fourth-round match went 3:51. Today Beatriz, who’s No. 14 in the world, again lost the opening set. And deep into the second set, Ons Jabeur, the WTA’s Minister of Happiness, was happy when she was close to scoring a key break. But the powerful Haddad Maia unleashed her power forehand and came back to win 3-6, 7-6(5), 6-1. She will face Iga Swiatek in Thursday’s semis.
GAUFF WITH THE WIND: Radio Roland Garros asked its listeners to come up with imaginative names of movies with playful tennis tennis titles. Here are some.
Gauff With the Wind
Murray on the Orient Express
The Good, the Badosa and the Ugly
Who’s Afraid of JJ Wolf?
Khachanov Me If You Can
The Sound of Musetti
Saving Private Bryan
The Creature from the Black Pegula
CHRIS EVERT AND THE MAN IN A HAT: When you’ve been in tennis press rooms for 42 years, people tend to get to know you. But the French Open interview room has super bright TV lights and, of late, my eyes have been sensitive to light. So I donned a deep blue hat and dark sunglasses. Then when it was my turn to call on me, the long time moderator referred to me as “the guy in the hat.”
Just as the presser ended she kindly apologized. Everyone laughed and I was reminded of the time, years ago, when I walked out of Roland Garros’s old press center and an attractive blonde wearing a hat and dark sunglasses greeted me. “Hi, Bill,” she said. But who was she?
She looked just like my sister – but I knew Brook was in California. So who the heck was this? How embarrassing! The woman then took off her sunglasses and said to me in an unmistakable voice, “Come on, Bill, it’s me, Chrissie [Evert].”
STAR WARS: Major tournaments often turn into battles between stars. And speaking of star wars, the New York Times’s Matthew Futterman noted, “Grand Slam tournaments are tennis’ version of the Star Wars bar – lousy with past champions collecting pats on the back and paychecks to do television commentary or rub shoulders with sponsors.”
DJOKOVIC’S LEFT-HANDED COMPLIMENT: Novak said that his next opponent, Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz, “Reminds me of someone from his country that plays with a left hand.”
QUOTEBOOK:
“Stefanos Tsitsipas is serving with a broken heart.” – Markus Buckland on the 24-year-old Greek, who struggled mightily against the 20-year-old Spaniard, Carlos Alacaraz
FOREVER AGO: Coco Gauff said that her 2019 breakthrough at Wimbledon “feels like forever ago. But there’s always some deja vu when you first walk Wimbledon’s grounds.”
LIFE-THREATENING DECISION? Alexander Zverev, who suffers from diabetes, said that the decision the other day to not let him give himself shots of insulin on court threatened his life.
SLOW STARTS: Since the start of 2021, Novak Djokovic has lost the first set 15 times in majors and come back 13 times. As for his sluggish start against Karen Khachanov in the quarterfinals, he said, “I stepped out on the court today and probably part of me stayed in the locker room.”
Stefanos Tsitsipas said he took some melatonin before his quarterfinal match against Carlos Alcaraz and during the first two sets of the contest felt like taking a nap. BTW: Before the tournament, Tsitsipas said that when he first came on the circuit, he didn’t care to make friends because he wanted to just focus on tennis.
But he said he’s now “in a phase of my life where having friends and different types of communications and connections means so much to me, because I’m learning so much through that, which ultimately just makes me a better person, which I’m aiming for every single day.”
THE MOST DISSECTED SHOT IN AMERICAN TENNIS: Everyone knows that the way to play Coco Gauff is to attack her forehand. Broadcaster Chris Bowers said she had no flat forehand. Mary Jo Fernandez said she should take seven months off and work on the stroke.
CRUNCH TIME WIZARD: Novak Djokovic has played four tiebreaks in the French Open. He hasn’t hit a single unforced error.
A NOT-SO-QUICK QUESTION ON QUICKNESS: A reporter asked Daria Kasatkina, “In the English language, your name, Daria, means really, really quick. Your match today was really, really quick, and it seems to me that everything you do is really, really quick. Why are you quick all the time? Is it because life is too short, and you just want to do lots of things all the time?”
NORTH AMERICANS ROCK DOUBLES: There are no North Americans left in the singles draw, but Americans Jessica Pegula and Coco Gauff will play the North American duo of Taylor Townsend and Leylah Fernandez in the women’s doubles semis, and Canadian Bianca Andreescu and New Zealand’s Michael Venus are in tomorrow’s mixed doubles final against German Tim Puetz and Japan’s Miyu Kato, who unfortunately was disqualified from the women’s doubles. American Austin Krajicek and Croatian Ivan Dodig face Spain’s MarcelGranollers and Argentina’s Horacio Zeballos in men’s doubles.
