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By Richard Pagliaro | Thursday, June 2, 2022

 
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18-year-old Coco Gauff surged through 9 of the last 10 games topping Martina Trevisan 6-3, 6-1 to reach her first Grand Slam final at Roland Garros.

Photo credit: Getty

Pressure swirled around maiden major semifinalists like a cloud of red dust.

A composed Coco Gauff stopped sound with flurry.

More: Swiatek Crushes Kasatkina for Second RG Final

The 18-year-old Gauff unleashed a baseline barrage storming through nine of the last 10 games muting Martina Trevisan 6-3, 6-1 to reach her first Grand Slam final at Roland Garros.

"Definitely means a lot. I'm so happy, and definitely wasn't expecting it," Gauff told the media in Paris. "I'm going to be honest. This year I hadn't had the best results going into this. So it wasn't expected at all, really."



Playing with poise and purpose, Gauff covered the court masterfully, mixed her high-bouncing heavy topspin forehand with finishing flat backhand strikes. Gauff snapped Trevisan’s 10-match winning streak, avenged her 2020 loss to the tough Italian and gave herself the ultimate graduation gift.

A little more than a week after Gauff, clad in cap and gown, leaped in front of the Eiffel Tower in a photo to celebrate high school graduation, she was jumping for joy in a coming of age triumph on Court Philippe Chatrier.

The Delray Beach-born baseliner is the youngest woman to reach the French Open final since Kim Clijsters in 2001,  the youngest woman major finalist since Maria Sharapova stunned Serena Williams to take the 2004 Wimbledon championship and the youngest American woman to contest a Grand Slam singles final since a 17-year-old Serena knocked off world No. 1 Martina Hingis in the 1999 US Open final.



Passion, patience and focus were keys for Gauff, who has not surrendered a set reaching the singles final and is into the doubles semifinals partnering compatriot Jessica Pegula.

The 18th-seeded Gauff will take on world No. 1 Iga Swiatek in Saturday's final.

The top-seeded Swiatek extended her remarkable run to 34 consecutive matches—the second-longest WTA winning streak of this century behind Venus Williams' 35 straight wins—dismissing Daria Kasatkina 6-2, 6-1 in a 64-minute thrashing in today's first semifinal.

In Gauff’s opening service game, she briefly paused play to complain to the chair umpire that Trevisan’s extended grunt was audible hindrance.

“I normally don’t care, but while I’m hitting it, she’s still screaming,” Gauff told chair umpire Marijana Veljovic.

The Trevisan grunt is a double-dose of exhortation—“Uh-Huh”—as if a club DJ mixed Thomas Muster and Sara Errani’s grunts together.

Confronted with the noise complaint, Trevisan stood up for herself on the changeover. When the chair umpire asked her to tone down the volume a bit, Trevisan shot that suggestion down.

“I always do like this and no one tell me that so I think I’m right,” Trevisan calmly replied. “I don’t need to change anything. I don’t think I need to change anything.”

In this case, you can see both points of view. Gauff had every right to complain as hearing the sound of the ball off the strings is vital for a pro to recognize the pace of an oncoming shot. Remember when Serena Williams was hit with a hindrance for prematurely celebrating a point against Samantha Stosur in the 2011 US Open final, which the Aussie won.

That said, Trevisan entered this match on the best roll of her life, grunting away all the while and said she hadn’t received a single complaint in the process. It would have been insane for her to try to change playing the most important match of her life.

Ultimately, Gauff beat the grunt out of the 28-year-old veteran.

Trevisan double faulted to face double break point in the third game. The Italian yanked a wild forehand well wide of the sideline gifting Gauff the break and a 2-1 lead.

Shaking it off, Trevisan broke right back on Gauff’s first double fault to level after four games. Gauff answered back with a break at 15 for 3-2.




The pair traded five breaks in the first serve games as Gauff began stepping into the court more. Banging a backhand down the line, Gauff broke for 4-3.

The 18th-seeded American owns a bigger first serve than then 5’3” Italian. Though Gauff wasn’t landing her first serve as consistently as she had in her prior straight-sets wins, she found it at the right time today charging through a hold at 15 for 5-3.

Applying her speed and playing high-percentage crosscourt drives Gauff spread the court and drew a running forehand error for double-set point. Trevisan sent another running forehand long as Gauff grabbed a one-set lead. Gauff won eight of nine points played on the left-hander’s second serve converting four of six break-point chances.

Playing patient combinations, Gauff sprinted through 12 of the last 14 points in the 46-minute opener.




After a physical first set, Trevisan took a treatment timeout. The trainer wrapper her right thigh in heavy taping. After about a six-minute break, the second set started.

Trevisan held in her first service game of the second set—her first hold since the opening game of the match—and was running with vigor despite the heavy strapping on her leg. The Italian burst off the mark quickly digging out a fantastic forehand down the line in a fiercely fought fourth game.

All that hard work dissipated in the dirt as Trevisan double-faulted to face a break point. In one of the longest rallies of the match, Gauff sent a barrage of heavy high forehands to back the left-hander up, got the ball she wanted and whipped her two-hander down the line breaking for 3-1.

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Credit the 28-year-old Trevisan for continuing to scrape, but Gauff found a higher gear. That was one of several differences today compared to Trevisan's victory over Gauff at the 2020 French Open.

"TodayThe weather was differently since two years ago. The bounce of the ball was very high and very fast also," Trevisan said. "Coco play very heavy, the ball was very heavy, and my body today, it wasn't at the best. So I think this is the key that the different of today, because my body, I wasn't energy brilliant like normally I do, so that's just the different."

The 18-year-old Gauff has the recognition and reaction skills of a much more experienced player.




Swooping forward for a short ball, Gauff hammered a forehand pass that froze Trevisan breaking for 5-1.

A focused Gauff stepped up to the line A lifetime of dedication led Gauff to 88 minutes of determination and her first Grand Slam final.

Afterward, Gauff signed the court-side camera with a call for gun reform in the wake of mass shootings in America.

"I think that this is a problem, you know, in other parts of the world, but especially in America it's a problem that's, frankly, been happening over some years but obviously now it's getting more attention. But for me it's been an issue for years," Gauff said afterward. "For me, it's kind of close to home. I had some friends that were a part of the Parkland shooting...

"This has been an issue, at least in my head, for a long time, and I definitely think there needs to be some reform put into place. I think now especially being 18 I've really been trying to educate myself around certain situations, because now I have the right to vote and, you know, I want to use that wisely."

 

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