PARIS — Coco Gauff does not appear to have a ton of major problems in her life.
She has a loving family. She is an excellent tennis player, one of the best in the world. She has lots of friends and countless fans. She travels the world playing a glamorous sport, and at 20 years old, she is already a Grand Slam champion and among the highest-paid athletes in the world.
She does have one major problem, though.
Her name is Iga Swiatek, and she is the world’s best female tennis player. On Thursday in Paris, in the semifinals of the French Open, she beat Gauff 6-2, 6-4, for the 11th time in 12 matches.
It’s the sort of one-on-one domination that can drive a player mad.
Each week, Swiatek gets a step closer to becoming the dominant player of the post-Serena Williams era of tennis, especially when it comes to beating one of the players who is supposed to make her work hard to maintain that supremacy. It’s particularly rough for Gauff on the red clay of Roland Garros, but she is pretty certain that Swiatek would beat her on a court made of marshmallows.
“I don’t know if it’s a big difference in our particular head-to-head,” she said about Swiatek’s effectiveness against her.
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