Coco Gauff wins even before playing Iga Swiatek at French Open

In journalism school, they teach a student to not "date" their work. In this case, dating this article works because of what might still happen. At the time of publication, Coco Gauff has yet to play Iga Swiatek in the semifinals of the French Open. Gauff, though, already knows she has won...in a way.

Gauff could defeat Swiatek and go to win her second Grand Slam after taking the trophy at the US Open in 2023. The 20-year-old seems bound for a great career, no matter if she wins or loses against Swiatek on Thursday. Whoever wins the match is going to be a heavy favorite against either Mirra Andreeva or Jasmine Paolini in the final.

The Andreeva part is important to Gauff, however. The American needed to do a bit better than Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka at Roland Garros to take over Sabalenka's No. 2 ranking on the WTA tour. Sabalenka lost to Andreeva in the quarterfinals in three sets. By the time that happened on Wednesday, Gauff had already reached the semifinals. One goal accomplished.

Coco Gauff achieves personal best before playing Iga Swiatek at the French Open

Gauff hopes to catch Swiatek in order to take the No. 1 ranking. Swiatek has won three of the last four French Opens and will be favored against Gauff. Even if Gauff manages to win, however, she is going to trail Swiatek by a large margin. The Pole currently leads the field by about 2,500 ranking points. Should Gauff win the French Open, she will still be more than 1,000 points behind.

This is where the fun starts, though. Swiatek has never been great on grass courts and the next Grand Slam is Wimbledon. Her career best at Wimbledon is the quarterfinals in 2023. She is going to be No. 1 heading into that event, but she won't be the betting favorite.

Gauff also hasn't excelled on grass courts but she lost in the first round at Wimbledon last year. She is going to be able to pick up a lot of ranking points should she do decently well. Should she win Wimbledon and Swiatek continue to not reach the semis, tennis fans will have a real rankings battle to watch.

At least for now, Gauff knows she is a rankings winner heading into the semifinals against Swiatek. She will officially be No. 2 on June 10. That ranking is a career-best, though one might have a feeling that Coco Gauff is far from done.

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