Coco Gauff believes Iga Swiatek is still a contender for the French Open title despite her roller-coaster campaign on the clay this year.
The American world No.3 has won her two most recent meetings against Swiatek at the WTA Finals in November and the Madrid Open earlier this month. In Madrid, she achieved her most one-sided win over the five-time Grand Slam champion, dropping just two games in the match. That was the heaviest loss Swiatek has suffered on the clay since 2019.
Heading into the Italian Open, both players experienced different fortunes. Gauff is still in the tournament, having claimed wins over Victoria Mboko, Magda Linette and Emma Raducanu to reach the fourth round. In contrast, defending champion Swiatek suffered a shock second round loss to Danielle Collins.
Swiatek hasn’t contested a Tour-level final since winning last year’s French Open. However, she has reached at least the quarter-final stage or better at most of her tournaments played in 2025, apart from Rome. Her mixed form has cast doubts over the Pole’s ability to win another major title in Paris. However, rival Gauff believes she still is a threat.
“For sure it changes some things when you see someone who won Roland Garros that many times not having the best results,” Gauff told reporters in Rome on Monday.
“I think it definitely gives players a lot of confidence when they come to face her.
“You also have to respect that she’s a four-time champion at Roland Garros. I always think if someone wins a tournament that many times, regardless of what shape they’re in, they can definitely figure out a way to win again.
“If I were to play her at the French Open, I would throw away the results in Madrid, not even think about it, expect her to play her best tennis.”
After getting knocked out of the Italian Open, Swiatek admitted that she needs to work on certain areas of her game, as well as her mindset. She has suffered nine losses so far this season, which is the same number as she had throughout the entire 2024 season. On Monday, she will fall down the rankings to at least fourth in the world, which will be her lowest position in three years. The consequence of this is that there is a higher probability that she could play world No.1 Aryna Sabalenka in the French Open semi-finals instead of the final.
“For sure, it hasn’t been easy. For sure, I’m doing something wrong,” Swiatek admits.
“So I need to just regroup and kind of change some stuff. I had some advice from the team. I’ll just try to do that.
“Daria [Abramowicz, Swiatek’s psychologist], like everybody from my team. We talked and came to some conclusions.
“I’m just going to change my mindset a little bit.
“I just wasn’t there; present to fight and to compete. I focused on mistakes. It’s my mistake, and I’m not doing things right.
“The focus is on the wrong things from my side and I’ll try to change that.”
The French Open will get underway on May 25th.
