French Open 2023 Results: Instant Reactions to Wednesday's Winners and Losers
Iga Swiatek extended her dominant reign at Roland Garros with her second win over Coco Gauff on the Paris clay in as many years.
The two-time French Open winner beat the 19-year-old American in straight sets in 88 minutes to advance to Thursday's semifinals.
Swiatek has not lost a set in her five matches at the 2023 French Open, and she should be the heavy favorite to win the women's singles title for the third time in four years.
Beatriz Haddad Maia will be Swiatek's next challenger. The 14th-seeded Brazilian qualified for her first-ever Grand Slam semifinal with a three-set triumph over No. 7 seed Ons Jabeur.
Casper Ruud and Alexander Zverev joined Swiatek as repeat French Open semifinalists on Wednesday.
Ruud, the runner-up to Rafael Nadal in 2022, handled Holger Rune in four sets, while Zverev reached his third straight semifinal in Paris with a four-set victory over Tomas Etcheverry.
Wednesday Results
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Men's Singles
No. 4 Casper Ruud def. No. 6 Holger Rune, 6-1, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3
No. 22 Alexander Zverev def. Tomas Etcheverry, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4
Women's Singles
No. 1 Iga Swiatek def. No. 6 Coco Gauff, 6-4, 6-2
No. 14 Beatriz Haddad Maia def. No. 7 Ons Jabeur, 3-6, 7-6 (5), 6-1
Iga Swiatek Controls Match With Coco Gauff
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Swiatek has been hard to take a set of, let alone beat, at Roland Garros since she won her first major title in 2020.
The top-seeded Polish player continued her dominance with a straight-set win over Gauff to advance to the semifinals.
Gauff actually fared better against Swiatek on Wednesday than she did in the 2022 final, but the final score was still less than favorable to her.
Gauff won just six games off Swiatek, the majority of which came in the first set. The American took four games off Swiatek last year.
Swiatek won four matches in Paris by straight sets and she advanced out of the fourth round due to a retirement. She has not lost more than four games in any set this tournament.
She is now 23-1 at Roland Garros since 2020 with the only loss coming in the 2021 quarterfinal to Maria Sakkari.
Swiatek will be an overwhelming favorite to defeat Haddad Maia in the semifinal. The 14th-seeded Brazilian was on the court 61 more minutes than Swiatek on Wednesday, and she will be playing in her first Grand Slam semifinal.
Haddad Maia had not advanced past the third round at any major tournament prior to the 2023 French Open.
There was a sign a breakthrough was coming, though, as she made the quarterfinals of the Italian Open, one of the top clay-court tune-up tournaments for the French Open.
Haddad Maia is 1-0 in her career against Swiatek. She defeated the No. 1 player in the world in three sets on the Toronto hard court last year, but beating Swiatek on clay is a much more difficult task.
Casper Ruud, Alexander Zverev Return to Semifinals
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Two of the four men's semifinalists from the 2022 French Open are back in the final four.
Ruud looked like the best clay court player outside of Carlos Alcaraz in the men's singles draw in his four-set win over Rune, which was a repeat result of the quarterfinal match between the two players in 2022.
The No. 4 seed lost three sets in five matches, and he has won nine of 10 sets after dropping the first set to Zhang Zhizhen in the third round.
Zverev is back in the spot where he suffered torn ligaments in his ankle last year. He was unable to finish his second set against Nadal because of the injury.
The German faced some concerns about his French Open prospects before the tournament because of the lingering effects of the injury, but that has not hampered him so far.
Zverev advanced to his sixth semifinal since the start of 2020 with a four-set win over Etcheverry, who made his first major quarterfinal appearance on Wednesday.
The No. 22 seed possesses more Grand Slam experience than Ruud, but both players have been equally as good on the Paris clay.
Zverev owns a 2-1 career record against Ruud, but all of those matches occurred on hard courts. They have never played each other on the clay.
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