Jun 4, 2024; Paris, France; Coco Gauff of the United States celebrates winning her match against Ons Jabeur of Tunisia on day 10 of Roland Garros at Stade Roland Garros.

tennis

Coco Gauff Brushes Aside Iga Swiatek in Dominant WTA Madrid Open 2025 Performance to Reach the Final

American earns third straight win over Swiatek.

Jun 4, 2024; Paris, France; Coco Gauff of the United States celebrates winning her match against Ons Jabeur of Tunisia on day 10 of Roland Garros at Stade Roland Garros.

In an upset of mammoth proportions, World No. 4 Coco Gauff left the Madrid Open crowd with dropped jaws as she thrashed Iga Swiatek 6-1 6-1 on Thursday. In the process, the American handed the No. 2 seed her second worst loss on red dirt in terms of games won. The Polish star was completely outplayed, leading to Gauff’s maiden entry into the final at the Spanish capital.

Despite having a lacklustre 2025 season, Coco Gauff is showing what she is capable of at the 2025 Madrid Masters. Coming under a lot of scrutiny of late, the 21-year-old has now won three straight sets with a score of 6-1. She has beaten Yastremska, Li, Bencic, Andreeva and Swiatek en route to the final – where she will face either Aryna Sabalenka or Elina Svitolina.

Gauff Produces Ruthless Display to Send Swiatek Packing

With a winless record against her 23-year-old counterpart, Coco Gauff had all the odds stacked against her in this match. Yet, she needed just 1 hour and 4 minutes to dispatch her opponent Okk Thursday’s semifinal. Although Swiatek didn’t produce her best level on the day, the American prodigy didn’t let her settle into a service rhythm at all. Unlike her previous match-ups against the four-time Roland Garros champ, Coco was aggressive on both wings.

Coming to her own serve, the 2023 US Open champion struck 7 aces during the course of the match. Swiatek found it challenging to get a read on the Gauff serve – the former World No. 2 won 19 out of 21 points on first serve. Contrary to earlier matches where she adopted a more attacking stance, Gauff stayed deep and relied on her shotmaking to prevent Swiatek from moving her around the court.

Gauff Credits ‘Aggressive’ Mindset for Madrid Triumph

3 – Since the format’s inception in 2009, Coco Gauff (21 years and 39 days) is now the third-youngest player to reach WTA-1000 finals on both clay and hard court, after Caroline Wozniacki and her opponent, Iga Swiatek. Determined.#MMOPEN | @MutuaMadridOpen @WTA @WTA_insider pic.twitter.com/q2a5D71zsr
— OptaAce (@OptaAce) May 1, 2025

Swiatek had previously won nine consecutive matches in Madrid, and 15 out of her last 16. However, she had no answers to the flat groundstrokes thrown by her opposition. Gauff broke the Swiatek serve a total of five times on Thursday. “The mentality I had in the whole match was aggressive,” declared the former Roland Garros runner-up. “Maybe it wasn’t her best level today, but I think I forced her into some awkward positions.”

On the other hand, Swiatek, who was hit with a warning for audible obscenity, believes she self-sabotaged her hopes of a title retention. “I couldn’t really get my level up. Coco played good, but I think it’s on me that I didn’t really move well. I wasn’t ready to play back the shots with heaviness. With that kind of game, it was pretty bad.”

Will Coco Gauff proceed to win her maiden title at the Mutua Madrid Open? Or will she stopped at the final hurdle?

Coco Gauff

Iga Swiatek

Madrid Open

Tennis

WTA

WTA 1000

Sankalp Harikrishnan

A passionate sports fan through and through, I am currently pursuing my MA in Global Sports Journalism. I specialise in tennis and football writing at The Playoffs News, and I have prior experience working at EssentiallySports and Sportskeeda. Born and raised in Bengaluru, India, sport was my safe space right from my childhood. After trying my hand at multiple sports and representing my educational institutions in cricket, badminton and table tennis, I found sports media to be my calling.