PARIS
\nWorld number one Iga Swiatek confirmed her dominance of women\u2019s tennis by sweeping aside American teenager Coco Gauff 6-1 6-3 to claim her second French Open title in three years on Saturday.
\nThe 21-year-old Pole\u2019s blend of power, poise and precision on the clay was too much to handle for the 18-year-old Gauff, who never recovered from a shaky start in her maiden Grand Slam final.
\nSwiatek, who took over as world number one when Australian Ash Barty announced her shock retirement in March, has now won 35 consecutive matches – matching the longest unbeaten streak since Venus Williams in 2000.
\nShe raced through the opening set and snapped Gauff\u2019s brief resistance in the second to become the fourth player this century to lift the Suzanne Lenglen Cup on multiple occasions.
\nSwiatek celebrated her sixth straight title this year in the players\u2019 box with her friends and family.
\n\u201cI told Coco \u2018Don\u2019t cry\u2019 and that\u2019s what I am doing. Congrats to Coco,\u201d said an emotional Swiatek. \u201cYou are doing an amazing job. At your age, I was on my first year on tour and I did not know what I was doing. You will find it, I am sure of that.\u201d
\nA disconsolate Gauff was left sitting on her seat in tears after a nervous performance, punctuated by 23 unforced errors and three double faults.
\nThe 18-year-old American came up short in her bid to become the youngest Grand Slam singles champion since Maria Sharapova won Wimbledon in 2004.
\n\u201cI want to congratulate Iga, what you\u2019ve done on tour in these past couple of months has been amazing,\u201d said Gauff, as the tears flowed again when she thanked her team. \u201cI hope we can play in more finals and maybe I can win one… I want to thank my team, I\u2019m sorry I couldn\u2019t get this one today.\u201d
\nGauff will now turn her attentions to Sunday\u2019s doubles final, where she will face home favourites Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic alongside compatriot Jessica Pegula.
\nGauff looked nervous in the opening exchanges and a flurry of unforced errors handed Swiatek a break in the very first game.
\nThe 18th seed found herself 3-0 and a double break down just 16 minutes into the match, as Swiatek\u2019s powerful backhand helped her win a lengthy third game on her fifth break point.
\nGauff finally got on the board with a scrappy hold to the delight of the crowd, but she had dropped a set for the first time in the tournament just minutes later.
\nSwiatek was not playing her best, but a cross-court backhand winner brought up two set points and she took the second opportunity when Gauff fired wide.
\nThe Pole gifted her opponent a potential route back into the match, making four unforced errors to throw away her serve in the first game of the second set.
\nSwiatek recomposed herself though as the mistakes continued to come from Gauff, breaking back to level at 2-2.
\nShe made it five straight games to move within one of the title, losing only five points in the process.
\nGauff dug deep to force Swiatek to serve for the trophy.
\nBut the top seed did just that on her first match point, dropping to the red clay in celebration as Gauff sent a return flying long.
\nOn Friday night, men\u2019s eighth seed Casper Ruud rallied from a set down to beat an error-prone Marin Cilic 3-6, 6-4, 6-2, 6-2 to become the first Norwegian man to reach a Grand Slam singles final and set up a title clash against 13-time champion Rafa Nadal.
\nWith his victory against the Croat on Court Philippe Chat\u00adrier, Ruud will at least rise to a career-high world ranking of sixth when the list is updated at the conclusion of the claycourt Grand Slam at Roland Garros.
\n\u201cIt was a great match from my side. I did not start great but from that break [second set] I played some of my best tennis this year,\u201d Ruud said in his on-court interview.
\n\u201cMarin is usually the one who is playing very fast and playing the balls very hard. I figured I need to step up a bit and counter attack and go for some faster shots. That helped.\u201d
\nRuud fired 16 aces and 41 winners past 2014 US Open champion Cilic.
\nHowever, there was a worrying security breach in the third set when a female protester ran onto the court and tied herself by the neck to the net.
\nShe wore a shirt which bore the slogan: \u201cWe have 1028 days left\u201d before being eventually cut free by security staff. The match resumed after a 15-minute delay.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
PARIS World number one Iga Swiatek confirmed her dominance of women\u2019s tennis by sweeping aside American teenager Coco Gauff 6-1 6-3 to claim her second French Open title in three years on Saturday. The 21-year-old Pole\u2019s blend of power, poise and precision on the clay was too much to handle for the 18-year-old Gauff, who […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":264813,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[8207,8208,6294],"class_list":{"0":"post-264785","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-french-open-title","9":"tag-gauff","10":"tag-ruthless"},"yoast_head":"\n