Coco Hauf was defeated by Iga Sviatek in the final of last year’s Roland Garros (6-1, 6-3), and this time both players will meet in the quarterfinals.

Coco Gauff on Iga Svyatek in the quarters at Roland Garros: “If you want to be the best, you have to beat the best”

Ahead of Wednesday’s match, the talented American (19) spoke about what marked her defeat in 2022 and, above all, what she would change this time to make the result different.

“Ideally, you treat every match the same, regardless of the opponent’s position in the rating. Obviously, I think it goes into your mind when you’re playing someone who’s No. 1 against someone who’s No. 100, but you can’t look at that number as a ranking.

Sometimes when you’re not playing your best, chances are you’ll come out victorious. This is what world leaders do. But in a Grand Slam, if someone makes it to the second week, they do really well, so you can’t write them off. Mentally it’s a little different.

Obviously I have to watch this match again because I don’t think we’ve met on clay before, we’ve played on different surfaces. I don’t know if that coverage matters that much, so I’ll go back and look at some of the previous matchups to see where I went wrong.

I think the watching part helps for the psychological factor, but that’s all in the past. It affects me positively. I don’t want the final to be my biggest achievement here, I want to keep moving forward and reach new heights.

I wanted to meet her since last year, especially at this tournament. I thought it would happen, I was sure we would both be fine, but I didn’t know which side we were on.

My mentality is that if you want to be the best, you have to beat the best. If you want to get better, you have to play your best. We’re both pretty confident now, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to beat her, what I can say for sure is that I’m going to give it my all on the court.

It would be cowardice to say that I do not want to face the noise, the challenge, because I am ready for it. I’ve improved a lot since last year and so has she, so it’s going to be a great fight for us and for the fans as well.” – Coco Gaufquoted by PuntoDeBreak.

Know:

• Iga Sviatek lost only 9 games in the first 4 matches of Roland Garros-2023 (she won 4 sets 6-0).

• Sviatek and Gauff have met six times so far, and each time the Pole won in two sets.

Iga Svyatek – Coco Gauf, 6-0 in head-to-head matches

2023, Dubai: 6-4, 6-2 for Svyanek

2022, Tournament of Champions: 6-3, 6-0 at Svientek

2022, San Diego: 6-0, 6-3 for Svyanek

2022, Roland Garros: 6-1, 6-3 for Svientek

2022, Miami: 6-3, 6-1 for Svyanek

2021, Rome: 7-6(3), 6-3 for Svyanek.

The Roland Garros tournament takes place from May 28 to June 11, has a total prize pool of 49.6 million euros, and is the 127th tournament. Iga Sviatek and Rafael Nadal (14-time winner in Paris) became the champions of the title.