Coco Gouf overwhelmed defending champion Iga Swieitok 6-1, 6-1 to reach the Madrid Open Singles Final on Thursday.
Gouf cruised three and two Swietech serves in the first set in the 64th minute semi-final against second-placed Swieight in the Clay Court Tournament.
“The mentality I had throughout the game was offensive,” said fourth-placed Gauff. “Maybe it wasn’t her best level, but I think I pushed her into some nasty positions.”
The victory was Gauff’s first against Clay against Swiatek. Swiatek holds an 11-4 edge in head-to-head history. Gauff is 3-0 against Swiatek since the end of 2024 from the WTA Finals.
Swiatek recovered from losing his first set of 6-0 to the Madison Keys on Wednesday. However, she appeared rattled on Thursday, with a rare lapse and suffered a code violation due to hearing indecency.
“I couldn’t level myself,” Swiatek said. “Coco played well, but I really didn’t move well. I wasn’t ready to play the shots by weight. With a game like that, it was pretty bad.”
Swiatek said “everything fell apart” due to her struggle in movement.
“I really didn’t know what was in my toolbox,” she said. “Nothing was working today, so I didn’t have a plan B.”
It was a 6-0, 6-2 loss in Birmingham in 2019, that SwiaTek won under two games in any face match, a 6-0, 6-2 loss.
The 23-year-old Polish player said, “I hopefully click, but I’m not expecting anything. I’m just trying to get the job done.”
“I certainly feel heavy. You’re like enforcing everything, rather than going intuitively. “I don’t usually have to think about it because I know how I can move. But last week it wasn’t that easy. It was like forcing myself to lower myself and be more accurate on my own feet.”
Gauff will face top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka or Elina Svitolina in the finals.
In the men’s quarterfinals, Casperude advanced by beating Danil Medvedev 6-3, 7-5 to become the first player born since 1990 to reach the semi-finals of 30 tour level at Clay.
The No. 15th Norwegian was 0-3 against Medvedev in his career.
“I looked at our stats last night and saw him beat me with grass. It’s hard outdoors and indoors. The final surface was clay so I thought ‘don’t make it 4-0′” “I tried to use the surface for my advantage. I thought the level was pretty good from both players. I was impressed with the ability to create power with clay here.”
Ladd then faces Francisco Serundo, who ralled to defeat teenager Jakub Mensik.
In another quarterfinal, fifth-placed Jack Draper defeated Matteo Arnald 6-0, 6-4. Arnardo defeated Novak Djokovic in the second round.
The Madrid Open was confused on Monday due to a massive blackout that has stopped Spain and Portugal. I had to postpone more than 20 matches at the Caja Magica Tennis Complex, and I created a packed schedule for the rest of the week.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to the report.