Key events
Or you’ve got nearly enough time to watch this. YouTube comes up short on the “Henin 2007 final” search, but here’s Seles beating Steffi Graf in the 1992 final:
Fancy some reading while we wait?
Order of play
COURT PHILIPPE CHATRIER
3pm/2pm BST
(1) Iga Swiatek (Poland) v (3) Coco Gauff (US)
Not before 5pm/4pm BST
(12) Jasmine Paolini (Italy) v Mirra Andreeva (Russia)
Preamble
Tennis, bloody hell. Only eight days ago Iga Swiatek was down and very nearly out against an inspired Naomi Osaka in the second round, coming from 5-2 behind in the final set and saving a match point to keep her bid for a third consecutive French Open title alive.
But instead of that narrow escape putting any doubt in the world No 1’s mind, it has had the opposite effect. She has treated her opponents with utter disdain since, conceding only eight games in three matches (half of those six sets have been won 6-0), and she made Marketa Vondrousova look like a world No 500 rather than a reigning Wimbledon champion in the 6-0, 6-2 quarter-final rout.
Yesterday’s results gave her even more momentum when her toughest rivals on tour, Aryna Sabalenka and Elena Rybakina, were bundled out in the other half of the draw. Swiatek knows that if she gets past Coco Gauff in their semi-final today – and the chances are that she will given this is a profitable match-up for her, having beaten the American in 10 of their 11 meetings – she’ll be the overwhelming favourite in Saturday’s final against Mirra Andreeva or Jasmine Paolini.
But making this all about Swiatek would do a disservice to Gauff – and Andreeva and Paolini. There has been so much to like about Gauff this tournament, especially the way she dealt with a resurgent Ons Jabeur in her gutsy three-set comeback win on Tuesday. Gauff – still only 20 – will be the new world No 2 next week, a reward for the supreme consistency she has achieved since winning the US Open last year. And Andreeva and Paolini deserve plenty of credit for the way they overcame their far more illustrious opponents yesterday; one of them will now reach their first slam final.
Swiatek knows this title is now hers for the taking, which would make her only the third woman to win three successive Roland Garros titles in the Open era after Monica Seles in 1990-92 and Justine Henin in 2005-07. But yesterday’s shockwaves are still reverberating around Roland Garros, and they serve as a reminder that nothing is guaranteed. And that, of course, is why we watch.
Play begins at: 2pm BST/3pm Paris time. Don’t be late!
