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      Coco Gauff Reaches French Open Final, Will Face Iga Swiatek

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      Gauff and Swiatek each advanced in their semifinals Thursday by winning in straight sets.PARIS — It is easy to be in a rush when you reach the fourth round of Wimbledon at age 15, beating one of your idols, Venus Williams, in your opening match. It is easy to be in a hurry when the sponsors and the platform are already in place, and you have been hearing from experts and the voice inside your own head that you have what it takes to be a champion.But tennis is a trickier game than most: a blend of the physical, the technical and the psychological with so much time to think between points and serves and so many tournaments, time changes and defeats to navigate.Coco Gauff, even if she is only 18, has had to be more patient than she planned. But the young American’s potential and performances under pressure are beginning to converge. On Saturday, she will play in her first Grand Slam singles final, facing the No. 1 seed, Iga Swiatek, at the French Open for the title and the Coupe Suzanne Lenglen.“There’s a fine line between believing in yourself and almost pushing yourself too much,” Gauff said on Thursday after her semifinal victory, 6-3, 6-1, over Martina Trevisan, sounding, as usual, rather older than her years.Gauff, the youngest Grand Slam singles finalist since Maria Sharapova won Wimbledon in 2004 at age 17, was comparing her expectations with those she had a season ago, when she reached the quarterfinals of the French Open. She found herself unable to manage the pressure and the critical points and flung her racket across the clay in frustration while losing to Barbora Krejcikova, the unseeded eventual champion.“At that moment, I wanted it too much,” she said. “Whereas now, I definitely want it. Yes, who wouldn’t? But also, it’s not going to be the end of the world if it doesn’t happen for me.”The odds, make no mistake, are still significantly against her. Gauff faces the toughest task available in women’s tennis.Swiatek, 21, extended her winning streak to 34 matches in Thursday’s first semifinal by overwhelming the 20th-seeded Daria Kasatkina, 6-2, 6-1, in just over an hour.That score and breakneck pace have been typical for Swiatek, the powerful and increasingly imposing Polish star. She has not lost a match since February and has beaten Gauff in their two previous matches in straight sets: winning, 7-6 (3), 6-3, on red clay in the semifinals of last year’s Italian Open and winning, 6-3, 6-1, on a hardcourt in the round of 16 at this year’s Miami Open in March.“She’s definitely the favorite going into the match on paper,” Gauff said. “But I think that going in, I’m just going to play free and play my best tennis. I think in a Grand Slam final, anything can happen.”Gauff during her match against Martina Trevisan of Italy.James Hill for The New York TimesGauff’s ability to extend points with her speed and defensive skills could certainly force Swiatek into more errors than usual. Under the guidance of Diego Moyano, the veteran coach who joined her team in April, Gauff has improved her tactics, according to her father, Corey Gauff, who has been her main coach since childhood.“Playing to her strengths means not rushing all the time,” Corey Gauff said in an interview on Thursday night. He added: “He’s able to communicate to her how it makes him feel on the other side of the net when she does something. He’s trying to get her to understand why she’s making the decision and what the impact is. And he’s been pretty effective compared to dad. We dads tend to be command and control, and that doesn’t always work.”But clay remains Swiatek’s favorite canvas. She won the French Open in 2020 at age 19. Gauff lost in the second round of that tournament to Trevisan, looking increasingly distraught as her double fault count rose. She finished with 19. On Thursday, she finished with just two, her lowest total of this Roland Garros.“She’s learning to manage the emotions and understanding that double faults are a part of the game and that you don’t need to overreact,” Corey Gauff said.Though Coco Gauff was only 4-3 on clay this year before Roland Garros, she has not lost a set in six matches. “I’m going to be honest,” she said. “This year I hadn’t had the best results going into this. So it wasn’t expected at all, really.”Gauff graduated from year-round, online high school earlier this spring, celebrating her achievement with a photo taken in front of the Eiffel Tower before the French Open. Corey Gauff believes that has helped her fly higher in Paris.“That release when you finish high school or college is real,” he said. “She’s always had work to turn in, and it’s always in the back of your mind. I feel like this is the first tournament she’s played with no homework.”But she is still following current events, and on Thursday, after defeating Trevisan, she walked across the red clay for the now-customary signing of the television camera glass and decided, quite spontaneously she explained, to make a statement about last month’s elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, in which 19 students and two teachers were killed.“Peace. End Gun violence,” Gauff wrote, drawing a heart next to her first name.“That was just a message for the people back at home to watch and for people who are all around the world to watch,” she said, adding: “Hopefully it gets into the heads of people in office to hopefully change things.”Gauff said she was influenced by athletes such as the former N.F.L. quarterback Colin Kaepernick and her fellow tennis star Naomi Osaka, who have been outspoken on social and cultural issues. But Gauff’s family also made it clear to her from an early age that she could have a reach far beyond the court.“My dad told me I could change the world with my racket,” she said. “He didn’t mean that by like just playing tennis. He meant speaking out on issues like this. The first thing my dad said to me after I got off court: ‘I’m proud of you, and I love what you wrote on the camera.’”Corey Gauff said he first told his daughter of the influence she could have when she was 6 or 7.“I am glad she’s being aware of what’s going on around her,” he said. “She has a brother who is 8 years old and is in elementary school. It’s not hard for it to hit home. I’m glad she is aware and bringing the attention and empathy to it. She’s not just hitting the tennis ball. She’s a global citizen.”Still, tennis is certainly a focus at Roland Garros. Gauff, seeded 18th, is guaranteed to rise to a career-high No. 13 and could rise as high as No. 8 if she defeats Swiatek. She is not just aiming for the singles title. She and her partner, Jessica Pegula, are into the semifinals of the women’s doubles and will face their American compatriots Taylor Townsend and Madison Keys on Friday.Gauff’s younger brothers — 8-year-old Cameron and 14-year-old Codey — are scheduled to arrive in Paris on Friday morning after traveling from the family’s home in Delray Beach, Fla.“They are coming over for the singles final and hopefully the doubles final as well,” Corey Gauff said.Cameron’s birthday is on Sunday.“He’s coming to Paris as an 8-year-old and leaving as a 9-year-old,” Corey Gauff said with a chuckle.Cameron’s big sister has a chance to leave as a Grand Slam champion. More

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      Nights Prove a Tricky Ticket at French Open

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      PARIS — Perhaps 10 years ago, over a late dinner at la Porte d’Auteuil after a long day of covering matches at Roland Garros, I remember agreeing with Philippe Bouin, the great French tennis writer for L’Équipe, that if the French Open ever chose to join other Grand Slam tournaments and stage night sessions, it would be the right time to move on to other pursuits instead of filing stories long after midnight and missing any chance at a last-call bistro meal.There are certainly bigger issues in tennis, but Bouin more or less kept his word, retiring long before the French Open adopted its “sessions de nuit” in 2021. But I’ve kept coming, and there I was bundled up in a nearly full stadium as Tuesday turned into Wednesday and May into June as Rafael Nadal finished off Novak Djokovic in their stirring quarterfinal at 1:15 a.m.Rafael Nadal beat Novak Djokovic on Tuesday night in four sets to reach the semifinals.Pete Kiehart for The New York TimesThere I was, too, walking out of Roland Garros a couple of hours later and — with no public transport available — observing a few French fans still trying in vain to hail a taxi or book a ride.Night sessions have their upside in tennis, no doubt: electric atmosphere, prime-time coverage (depending on one’s time zone) and a chance for fans who work during the day to attend in person.Fans did the wave during a night match between Marin Cilic and Daniil Medvedev on Monday. Pete Kiehart for The New York TimesBut the new night sessions at Roland Garros, created above all to increase profits for an event that trails the other the Grand Slam events in domestic television revenue, also have had plenty of downsides. That is largely because the French decided to do them their own way by scheduling just one match in that slot instead of two, the usual offering at other Grand Slam events.Guy Forget, the former French Open tournament director who was part of that decision, said it was made “so matches would not end at 3 a.m.”Ball kids watching the end of a match between Alizé Cornet and Jelena Ostapenko from a camera pit.James Hill for The New York TimesWimbledon remains a holdout on night sessions (grass gets even more slippery after sunset). But the U.S. Open and the Australian Open, which have had night sessions for decades, usually schedule a men’s singles match and a women’s singles match, and there have been a few all-nighters along the way, including a Lleyton Hewitt victory over Marcos Baghdatis at the 2008 Australian Open that ended at 4:34 a.m. (It was quite a sunrise on the way back to the hotel.)The French Open approach has been problematic in terms of value for money — is one blowout in the chill, like Marin Cilic’s rout of Daniil Medvedev — worth well over 100 euros a ticket?It also has been problematic for gender equality. The 10 Roland Garros night sessions this year featured just one women’s match: the Frenchwoman Alizé Cornet’s victory over Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia. It was the same ratio last year, when the tournament debuted the night sessions, with no fans on nine of 10 nights because of the coronavirus pandemic.Djokovic serving during his match against Yoshihito Nishioka of Japan.James Hill for The New York TimesThe disparity has continued even though Amélie Mauresmo, a former WTA No. 1 from France, is the new French Open tournament director. Pressed on the issue on Wednesday, the morning after the Nadal-Djokovic duel, Mauresmo displayed clumsy footwork, saying that, as a woman and a “former women’s player,” she did “not feel bad or unfair saying that right now” the men’s game was generally more attractive and appealing than the women’s game.Mauresmo said her goal after the draw came out was to try to find women’s matches that she could put in that showcase nighttime slot. But she said she struggled to find the marquee matchups and star power she was seeking. Women’s matches are also typically shorter with a best-of-three-sets format, compared with best of five for the men.A group in the crowd with a drum and trumpets and a portrait of Cornet roused the crowd during a break.James Hill for The New York Times“I admit it was tough,” she said. “It was tough for more than one night to find, as you say, the match of the day,” she said, sounding somewhat apologetic.Iga Swiatek, the 21-year-old Polish star, did not get a nighttime assignment despite being the new No. 1 and a former French Open champion.“It is a little bit disappointing and surprising,” Swiatek said of Mauresmo’s comments after running her winning streak to 33 singles matches on Wednesday with a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Jessica Pegula, an American. She added that it was more convenient for most players to compete during the day, “but for sure I want to entertain, and I also want to show my best tennis in every match.”Ostapenko discussing a line call with an umpire.James Hill for The New York TimesIn a text message, Steve Simon, the WTA chief, expressed disapproval with the nighttime scheduling and with the fact that women’s matches were usually picked to be the opening match on the two main show courts during the day sessions: a time slot in which crowds and viewership are often smaller.“The generation and depth of talent we are currently witnessing in the sport is incredible,” he said. “Our fans want to see the excitement and thrill of women’s tennis on the biggest stages and in the premium time slots. There is certainly room for improvement, and if we want to build the value of our combined product, then a balanced match schedule is critical in providing that pathway.”A D.J. performed to warm up the crowd at Philippe Chatrier Court in a nighttime showcase marketed as “D.J. Set and Match.” James Hill for The New York TimesThe WTA was short on superstar power at Roland Garros with the surprise retirement of top-ranked Ashleigh Barty in March, the first-round defeats of Naomi Osaka and the defending French Open champion, Barbora Krejcikova, and the continued absence of Serena and Venus Williams, who have yet to compete this year.But the one-match nighttime format also made it difficult to showcase Swiatek, who is winning most of her matches in a hurry at this stage. “The amount of playing time is certainly a factor,” Mauresmo said in a text message.Why not simply schedule two matches, or two women’s matches, at night to guarantee enough entertainment? Because, according to Mauresmo, the night-session broadcast contracts from 2021 through 2023 stipulate that there be just one match.Nishioka stretching for a shot during his match against Djokovic.James Hill for The New York Times“Impossible to change that,” Mauresmo said. “But we still will talk with our partners to think of other possibilities that could satisfy ticket holders.”That sounds like a fine idea, as does starting earlier than 8:45 p.m., even with a single match, if the idea is to spare players too many late nights and avoid irking the neighbors in the leafy and peaceful suburb of Boulogne, which was another reason for the one-match concept.The bigger issue in France is accessibility. Amazon Prime Video, the internet broadcaster that purchased the night-session rights here, has a small footprint compared with the traditional public broadcaster. And yet it is supposed to get the marquee match even if the contract, according to L’Équipe, allows the French Open organizers the final say.Fans watching a night match between Marin Cilic and Daniil Medvedev.Pete Kiehart for The New York TimesBut there was no doubt about the marquee match on Tuesday, and though Amazon Prime agreed exceptionally to allow free access to its service to viewers in France, the decision to schedule Nadal and Djokovic’s quarterfinal at night sparked debate and anger.“The French Tennis Federation’s decisions shocks me profoundly,” Delphine Ernotte, president of France Televisions, told Le Figaro. “It’s a low blow to our partnership after we have broadcast and popularized the event for years.”To have the matchup of the tournament end at 1:15 a.m. on a weeknight surely was not great for viewership in France, either. And though the atmosphere was still transcendent inside the main stadium after midnight, there was a price to pay on the road home.French Open organizers have yet to reach an agreement with the Parisian authorities to keep public transport operating after very late finishes.The Métro was closed, and so — as Bouin and I feared long ago — were the bistros.Nadal celebrating after defeating Djokovic early Wednesday morning.Pete Kiehart for The New York Times More

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      Nadal Advances to French Open Semifinals After Defeating Djokovic

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      PARIS — For a man who did not want to play Novak Djokovic at night, Rafael Nadal certainly made the best of the situation.Whatever the hour and whatever the surface, Nadal remains one of the supreme fighters and problem solvers in sports. Though Nadal did not have the clout as a 13-time French Open champion to influence the scheduling, he did have the skill and the will to hold off the only man who has beaten him twice at Roland Garros.Nadal, who will turn 36 on Friday, was irresistible at the start of his latest marathon with Djokovic and sometimes shaky in the middle, but he found a way well after midnight to save two set points down the stretch and cross the finish line in first with a 6-2, 4-6, 6-2, 7-6 (4) victory.“Novak is one of the best players of the history without a doubt,” Nadal said. “Playing him is always an amazing challenge, all the history we have together. Today was another one. To win against Novak there is only one way to play, at your best and first point to the last, and tonight was one of those magic nights for me.”This four-hour-and-12-minute triumph did not secure Nadal the trophy. It was only a quarterfinal on a chilly Tuesday evening when scarves were definitely in order on the Philippe Chatrier Court (some fans chose to wrap their entire bodies in Spanish or Serbian flags).But the victory — completed at 1:15 a.m. local time Wednesday — did provide Nadal with the sort of buzz and satisfaction that validates his decision to keep pushing the limits at this late stage of his career and also protected his lead in the race to finish with the most men’s Grand Slam singles titles. Nadal took hold of the record by winning his 21st major title at the Australian Open in January, breaking his tie with his longtime rivals Djokovic and Roger Federer, who both have won 20.Not that Nadal is obsessing over the race.“There is always a conversation about the player who will finish with more Slams or who is the best of the history, but from my perspective it doesn’t matter that much,” he said. “We achieved our dreams.”That is certainly true for Nadal at Roland Garros, where he has succeeded far beyond even his own imaginings. There was a time, early in his long period of dominance in Paris, when he was no crowd favorite at Roland Garros. The fans traditionally cheer for the underdog and long cheered for Federer most loudly of all when it came to the Big Three players who have ruled the men’s game for most of the last 20 years. But the mood has shifted in recent seasons. There is now a statue of Nadal near the entrance of the stadium complex, and throughout Tuesday evening there were chants of “Rafa” even as Djokovic prepared to serve at critical phases. “I think probably they know that I am not going to be here a lot more times,” Nadal said.It was Djokovic who did not get the chance to play in this year’s Australian Open. He was deported on the eve of the competition after a standoff with the Australian government over his being unvaccinated against Covid-19. But he arrived in Paris and at Tuesday’s match in more convincing form than Nadal, who is without a doubt the greatest men’s clay-court player in history but was very short on matches on the surface this year.“Yes, I was surprised by my level tonight,” Nadal said. “But in a way it makes it simpler when you know that you either need your A game or you’re going home.”Nadal injured his ribs at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, Calif., in March, losing the final to the American Taylor Fritz while playing with a stress fracture. He missed most of the early clay-court season and only returned for the Madrid Open in mid-May, when he was upset by his 19-year-old Spaniard compatriot, Carlos Alcaraz, in the quarterfinals.Then came the Italian Open, his only other clay-court event before Roland Garros, where Nadal was beaten in three sets by Denis Shapovalov of Canada in a round-of-16 night match in Rome in which he hobbled to the finish, grimacing in pain as his chronic left foot condition resurfaced. He was downbeat after that defeat but did not rule out playing in the French Open and arrived in Paris seeded fifth and, unlike in Rome, with his longtime physician, Angel Ruiz-Cotorro.“Having the doctor here you can do things that help,” said Nadal, declining to go into detail on his treatment while continuing to suggest that this could be his final appearance at Roland Garros. “I am putting everything that I have to try to play this tournament with the best conditions possible, no? I don’t know what can happen after, honestly, but here I think I am going to be fine.”As so often, Nadal has proved able to play and prevail through the pain. He fought to a five-set victory in the fourth round over the 21-year-old Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime, then took on the top-seeded Djokovic for the 59th time on tour and the 10th time at Roland Garros. “I’m not surprised at all,” Djokovic said after the match. “It’s not the first time that he, you know, is able to a few days after he’s injured and barely walking to come out 100 percent physically fit. You know, he’s done it many times in his career, so I’m not surprised.”Last year, in another stirring night match, Djokovic defeated Nadal in four sets on his way to winning the title. Nadal faded in the final set due to Djokovic’s staying power but also to the foot condition — Müller-Weiss syndrome — that would keep him from playing for most of what remained of the 2021 season.But in this French Open rematch, Nadal was strong at the start and at the finish in a grueling duel with an average rally length well over five strokes. Nadal finished with 57 winners to 43 unforced errors and did a much better job than Djokovic of protecting his second serve: winning 60 percent of the points on it while Djokovic won just 42 percent on his. Still, Djokovic served for the fourth set at 5-4 and was twice only one point away from forcing decisive fifth. But on the first set point, Djokovic lost an extended rally by hitting a backhand into the net. On the second, he decided to be more aggressive but his approach shot was more hopeful than good and Nadal ran to his right and smacked a backhand passing shot winner that Djokovic was never close to reaching.It was soon 5-5 in the fourth set and Nadal took quick control of the ensuing tiebreaker, just as he had taken quick command of the match. He jumped out to a 6-1 lead in the tiebreaker and then held on and closed out the victory on his fourth match point with another backhand winner, turning to his team and raising both his arms.“Congratulations to Nadal, he was the best player in the important moments,” Djokovic said. “I managed to win the second set and thought I was back in the game, but then he had another two or three fantastic games again at the beginning of the third. He was just able to take his tennis to another level.” Djokovic still leads their overall series 30-29 — a statistic that reflects the transcendence of their rivalry — but Nadal has now extended his lead over Djokovic in French Open matches to 8-2 and will face Alexander Zverev, a German seeded third, on Friday for a place in the men’s singles final.Nadal is the only man left in the tournament who has won the French Open, and though Tuesday night’s performance might have come as a surprise to Nadal and those who saw him hobbling in Rome, it would surely come as no surprise to anyone if Nadal took the confidence and momentum that goes with defeating Djokovic and rode it to a 14th title at Roland Garros. More

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      Alexander Zverev Beats Carlos Alcaraz at the French Open

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      PARIS — Alexander Zverev, the No. 3 seed, returned to the semifinals of the French Open with a 6-4, 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (7) victory over Carlos Alcaraz on Tuesday, ending the Spanish 19-year-old’s stirring run at Roland Garros.Zverev, a 25-year-old German, also snuffed out Alcaraz’s rousing comeback in this quarterfinal. Zverev, beaten by Alcaraz in the Madrid Open final ahead of the French Open, was the more consistent and convincing player for nearly three sets. “I think letting him go ahead in the match and letting him get the confidence was going to be a very difficult thing for me to come back from,” Zverev said.But Alcaraz, on the brink of being quickly eliminated, did lift his game. As usual, that was quite a sight, as he produced delicate drop shots, audacious returns, reflexive volleys and full-cut forehand winners that left the 6-foot-6 Zverev staring wistfully at the ball marks on the red clay court.Alcaraz, like the top-seeded Novak Djokovic, is half tennis player, half gymnast. And with a flurry of brilliant and acrobatic tennis, Alcaraz, the No. 6 seed, took the third set. With another surge late in the fourth set, he broke Zverev’s serve when he was serving for the match at 5-4. This all-court duel, by this stage, was well worthy of a tiebreaker, and both men produced excellence under duress yet also cracked.Alcaraz had a set point at 6-5 in the tiebreaker and failed to convert it when he made an unforced error with his backhand into the top of the net. Zverev missed a backhand of his own on his first match point during the tiebreaker.It was now 7-7 and the chants of “Carlos, Carlos” were only getting louder. But Zverev, with the crowd and the flow against him, steeled himself, winning the next two points to close out the match. He finished off the victory with a bold backhand return winner down the line that Alcaraz, one of the quickest men in tennis, could not come close to reaching.“It is one shot I like, it’s true,” Zverev said, grinning throughout his post-match news conference, which he started by raising both his arms in triumph.“I’ve done it a lot in my career,” he said of his backhand return winner. “But I had to win the match myself, I felt I was going to either miss it by a country mile or hit a winner, and I hit a winner, which I’m quite pleased about.”Alcaraz, in the midst of a breakthrough season, has still played in only four Grand Slam tournaments.“I leave the court, leave the tournament with the head very high,” he said. “I fight until the last ball. I fought until the last second of the match, and I’m proud of it.”But the best-of-five-set format remains another type of challenge than the best-of-three-set variety played on the regular tour. For now, Alcaraz’s best results in the majors are quarterfinal runs at the U.S. Open last year and now in Paris.“I didn’t start well, and in this level, quarterfinal of a Grand Slam, you are playing against the best players in the world, so you have to start the match better than I did today,” Alcaraz said. “I have to take the lesson. I mean, I have to improve to the next Grand Slam or next matches. But I would say I’m not far away to reach a semifinal or be able to win a Grand Slam.”Zverev, a semifinalist at Roland Garros last year, clearly felt the odds were against him on Tuesday in light of Alcaraz’s recent results. Alcaraz had won the Barcelona and Madrid titles back-to-back on red clay and resumed rolling at Roland Garros after saving a match point against his Spanish compatriot Albert Ramos-Viñolas in the second round.“I knew I had to play my absolutely best tennis today from the start, and I’m happy I did that,” Zverev said. “Obviously he kept on coming back. He’s an incredible player. I told him at the net, he’s going to win this tournament a lot of times, not only once, and I just hope I can win it before he starts beating us all, and we’ll have no chance at all.”Zverev, despite his fine performance (and evident relief) on Tuesday, is still a long way from winning his first Grand Slam singles title. In the semifinals, he will face the winner of Tuesday’s second match: a night session between Djokovic and the fifth-seeded Rafael Nadal, who has won the French Open a record 13 times.“It’s not really getting easier from here,” said Zverev, still looking delighted. “But I said a lot of times, I’m not 20 or 21 years old anymore; I’m 25. I am at the stage where I want to win, I’m at the stage where I’m supposed to win, as well.” More

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      Coco Gauff Advances to French Open Semifinals

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      After graduating from online high school, Coco Gauff is in a new phase of her tennis career, and she is marking the occasion at the French Open in her favorite city.She has long had precocious power and speed, which she underscored by reaching the fourth round of Wimbledon at age 15. Three years later, she is playing with less exuberance and more patience. And on Tuesday, on the same Philippe Chatrier Court where she lost her cool a year ago amid errors and clear frustration, she kept it together impressively, defeating Sloane Stephens, 7-5, 6-2, to reach her first Grand Slam singles semifinal.Gauff, 18 and seeded No. 18, will face Martina Trevisan, an unseeded Italian, who will also be playing in her first major semifinal. Trevisan defeated 17th-seeded Leylah Fernandez, 6-2, 6-7 (3), 6-3, on Tuesday.“I feel so happy right now; words cannot explain,” Gauff said in her on-court interview. “Last year in the quarterfinals was a tough loss for me, and I think that match really made me stronger, to better prepare for moments like today and the moments I will face in the next round.”A year ago, Gauff faced Barbora Krejcikova, a then-unseeded doubles specialist, in the quarterfinals at Roland Garros and lost, 7-6 (6), 6-3. She failed to convert five set points in the opening set, made unforced errors by the bunch and uncharacteristically destroyed her racket with three angry blows to the red clay as she fell behind in the second set.Krejcikova went on to win the title, and Gauff had to work through her regrets: trying to separate the player from the person, an approach she shared with the crowd after her victory over Stephens.“I believe in myself, but I think when I was young, like even last year, I was kind of too focused on trying to fulfill other people’s expectations,” she said. “I think you should just enjoy life. I know no matter how good or bad my career is, I think I’m a great person.”Gauff, who is from Delray Beach, Fla., has long been identified as a potential superstar, and with good reason. At 13, she was the youngest U.S. Open girls’ singles finalist in history. She won the French Open girls’ title at age 14, a year before her breakthrough run in 2019 as a qualifier at Wimbledon, where she defeated one of her role models, Venus Williams, in her first main-draw match at the All England Club.Unlike some teen prodigies, Gauff did not soar to the top of women’s tennis in a hurry. Her progress has not been linear, but she is in new territory now in the final four of the French Open on a gritty surface that perhaps suits her best.She can extend points like few players in the game with her quickness and defensive skills, and can also finish them with her terrific two-handed backhand and increasingly with her forehand, long her weaker wing. She was far from perfect against Stephens, making 18 winners to 23 unforced errors, including six double faults. But she played the critical points better, rarely going for a winner from a compromised position. Instead, she patiently worked her way to the opening while the unseeded Stephens struggled to maintain her consistency, mixing forehand winners with untimely mistakes and several gaffes at the net.Stephens, a former U.S. Open champion, has had great success on clay, reaching the French Open final in 2018, where she lost to Simona Halep. But she had not won a clay-court match this season before arriving unseeded at Roland Garros.“I would have liked to play better today, but that doesn’t take anything away from the work she has put in obviously to reach this point,” Stephens said of Gauff.Stephens, 29, is now based in the Boston area, but she was long based in South Florida, like Gauff and her family, and knew them well enough to attend Gauff’s 10th birthday party. She has long been a role model for Gauff, and she defeated her in the second round of the U.S. Open last year in their only previous meeting on tour.“I’m glad today was different,” Gauff said. “Honestly, I just told myself to stay mentally there. I knew there were some shots I probably should have made and some shots she gets in the court that probably no other player gets in the court.” More

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      Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic Meet at French Open Quarterfinals

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      Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic will play in a quarterfinal at the French Open on Tuesday night, their 59th career meeting and 10th at Roland Garros.PARIS — The rivalry between Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic began in the quarterfinals of the French Open.Sixteen years later, it just might end in the quarterfinals of the French Open.“We have to be ready that this could be the last time they play in a Grand Slam,” said Mats Wilander, 57, a three-time French Open men’s singles champion. “I think we have to cherish this moment and not get ahead of ourselves.”No one has prospered by underestimating either player’s resilience or powers of recuperation. But the future seems particularly uncertain in light of Nadal’s chronic foot condition that is now flaring up with alarming regularity and, by his own admission, sapping some of his trademark enthusiasm for the struggle.Nadal vs. Djokovic has been, undoubtedly, one of the best and closest extended tussles in sports: with ebbs and flows in confidence and dominance in matches across four continents and, unlike with Nadal’s less prolific rivalry with Federer, at all four of the Grand Slam tournaments.Nadal and Djokovic, both 35 until Nadal’s birthday on Thursday, once shared a closer connection and even a publicist, but whatever their disagreements now on Covid-19 vaccination or tennis politics, they will always be connected as part of the triangle that has defined men’s tennis since the late 2000s, when Djokovic rose to meet the bar set by Nadal and Federer.But Tuesday’s quarterfinal, which will be played at night at Roland Garros despite Nadal’s lobbying for the day session, comes at an intriguing moment on multiple levels.For the first time, a group of much younger players who look like a legitimate collective threat has emerged: a Generation Z cohort all 21 years old or younger. It is led with panache by Carlos Alcaraz of Spain and includes the Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime, who pushed Nadal to five sets on Sunday, and Holger Rune, a potentially great Dane in a backward ball cap who knocked out Stefanos Tsitsipas, last year’s French Open runner-up, with a bewitching brew of power and touch on Monday on the main court, Philippe Chatrier.Alcaraz and Rune are just 19 and in the quarterfinals, and though Nadal vs. Djokovic will take up plenty of air and head space between now and very late Tuesday night, there might be even more anticipation within the sport to see Nadal or Djokovic face Alcaraz in the next round than to watch Nadal and Djokovic play for a 59th time.The novelty factor is real, particularly after Alcaraz beat Nadal and Djokovic back-to-back on red clay on his way to winning the Madrid Open earlier this month.There are no shortage of dissenters, of course.“I’ll take No. 59,” said Julien Benneteau, the French former player who is now the country’s King Cup captain. “These guys are two monuments of tennis, along with Federer. I can’t wait to watch it again.”Novak Djokovic bested Nadal when they last played, in a French Open semifinal last year.Christophe Ena/Associated PressAlcaraz, full of flash and fire, is no lock to reach the semifinals, even if he will be favored against the No. 3 seed Alexander Zverev in a quarterfinal that will end the day session on the Chatrier Court before the main event occupies the red, rectangular stage.Nadal, a creature of habit, as his precisely aligned water bottles make plain, was clear after beating Auger-Aliassime that he wanted a day match. Night sessions are a new development at the modern French Open, introduced last year albeit with reduced capacity because of pandemic-related restrictions.Night sessions are a longtime staple of the U.S. Open and the Australian Open, the two Grand Slam tournaments played on hardcourts.There are also night sessions at other European clay-court events, including the Madrid Open and the Italian Open, which Nadal has still managed to win 10 times. But his night match this year in Rome against Denis Shapovalov did not end happily as Nadal lost in three sets, limping noticeably and grimacing as he struggled to finish the final set, casting doubt on his preparations for Roland Garros.Conditions can change considerably on clay after dark, particularly on a cool and relatively humid night when the balls get heavier and bounce lower: no boon to Nadal’s lively topspin forehand.“The match with Djokovic could be my last match here,” Nadal said on Sunday, sounding somber. “I know Roland Garros during the day and prefer to play during the day. I’ve gone through a complicated situation with my foot, and I don’t know what’s going to happen with my career. What I’m trying to do is enjoy and continue living the dream to play tennis and get to the final rounds of Roland Garros.” Despite that plea, the French Open organizers remained unconvinced or perhaps had contractual obligations to Amazon Prime Video, which holds the night-session rights in France.No. 59 will be a night match, just as the remarkable semifinal between the two at last year’s French Open turned into one after starting in the late afternoon.“Unfortunately, every year they play one round earlier here,” said Goran Ivanisevic, Djokovic’s coach. “Two years ago it was the final. Last year it was the semis and now the quarters, but it’s probably the best quarterfinal ever in the history of the French Open.”Their two previous quarterfinal duels at Roland Garros were actually no great shakes. In the first in 2006, their first meeting at any level, Djokovic retired with an injury after losing the first two sets.In 2015, Djokovic, in peak form with Nadal in an extended slump, became only the second man to defeat Nadal at Roland Garros, routing him 7-5, 6-3, 6-1 in what looked, incorrectly, like the end of an era for Nadal at the French Open. He has gone on to win it four more times.But he did not win it last year as Djokovic became the first man to beat Nadal twice at the French Open, prevailing 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (4), 6-2 in a match that’s intensity and shotmaking peaked in the third set before Nadal, struggling with his foot and Djokovic’s excellence, faded in the fourth.“Their third set last year was probably the best set of tennis I’ve seen,” said Darren Cahill, the retired player, longtime ESPN analyst and leading coach.They have not played since, but Djokovic comes into the quarterfinal with the momentum after reaching the semifinal in Madrid — losing a tight match to Alcaraz — and then finding a higher gear to win the Italian Open without dropping a set.“I think this year and 2015 are the two times when he is the clear favorite,” Nadal said of Djokovic. “The other times I was a bit more, or it was 50-50.”After being forced to miss the Australian Open because of his anti-vaccination stance and being deported on the eve of the tournament, Djokovic had to watch from afar — and with jet lag — as Nadal passed him in the men’s record books by winning his 21st Grand Slam tournament singles title.Djokovic, right, and Nadal are still both leading players at 35, but young players like Carlos Alcaraz, who beat both at the Madrid Open, are on the rise.Gabriel Bouys/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesBut after returning to the tour full time in April and struggling with his endurance and his timing, he has gathered serious steam. Enough to handle a grinding, grueling five-setter with Nadal on the Spaniard’s signature surface?“Novak is ready for best-of-10,” Ivanisevic said. “It was not easy. Australia threw him back a little bit, but people like him, these genius people, have a different brain, and he needed a little bit of time.” He added: “So far he’s playing well, hitting the ball well, and he’s ready. Rafa is ready, so we see.”Nadal, lacking depth and percussive power at times against Auger-Aliassime, managed to find his most convincing tennis in the closing games.“Rafa is match toughened this year with having hit the wall many times and finding ways to win,” Cahill said. “Novak has only just started looking good and has coasted in Paris. He will feel his lungs popping out of his chest for maybe the first time this year.”Djokovic leads their overall series 30-28, but Nadal still leads 10-7 in Grand Slam matches and 19-8 on clay. This will be their 10th match at Roland Garros: more than any men have played each other at any tour-level event in the Open era.After facing off 58 times (and in a few more exhibition matches), there can be no secrets on court. Nadal knows that breaking down the elastic Djokovic from the baseline is one of the toughest asks in tennis. Djokovic knows that regaining control of a rally once Nadal has begun to dictate its terms with his whipping forehand is every bit as daunting.“Watch for Rafa’s forehand down the line,” Cahill said. “He will try and stretch Novak to that side as his defense on the backhand is crazy good.”They have never been the biggest servers and are no longer the biggest hitters, but they have grown into supremely complete players, increasingly prone to attacking or even serving and volleying when they need it most, irrespective of the surface.Above all, they have grown, despite their differences, into two of the greatest and enduring champions in any sport, both poised to finish with the record for Grand Slam men’s singles titles that has become, however reductive, the tennis gold standard.Win on Tuesday and Nadal can protect his slim lead. Lose and Djokovic will have a tying 21st in his sights, though not necessarily in his grasp. Tougher matches just might await. More

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      It’s the French Open. Why Can’t the French Win?

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      PARIS — The most prominent feature of the French Open is that this Grand Slam tournament takes place on the rusty red clay of Roland Garros, a beloved feature that is as much a part of local culture and tradition as the bouquinistes that sell art and used books along the Seine.And yet, as it so often is in the country that claims Albert Camus and Simone de Beauvoir, the relationship between France and its “terre battue” is a little more complicated.This red clay that comes from a small brick factory in Oise, north of Paris, elicits so much love.“My favorite surface,” said Stéphane Levy, a lifelong member of the Tennis Club of Paris, a favorite haunt of some of the country’s top players, including Gilles Simon and Corentin Moutet, where eight of the 18 courts are made from the same clay as those at Roland Garros.“There is no feeling like playing on it,” Levy said. “The sliding, the clay on your body when you sweat.”But the clay has also become a symbol of deep frustration. A Frenchwoman has not won the singles championship this country so treasures, the one that requires more grit but also more thought than any other, since Mary Pierce in 2000. A Frenchman has not won it in 39 years, since Yannick Noah in 1983. The last of the French men and women were eliminated from the singles tournaments on Saturday.Why?There are 800 children taking part in the tennis school of the Tennis Club of Paris.Players and coaches of the club’s second men’s team gathered before an interclub match.The answer likely has a lot to do with a central contradiction in the home of red clay’s biggest stage. Just 11.5 percent of the tennis courts in France are made of the traditional red clay and most of those are in private clubs. Another 16.5 percent of courts are made of an imitation clay surface that is similar to the terre battue but plays harder and faster than the softer, traditional clay.Maintaining red clay in cold, wet weather, which is common in France for much of the year, is practically impossible, and building indoor complexes for them is expensive. So most French tennis players grow up playing on hardcourts, unlike their counterparts in Spain, where temperate weather and red clay dominate the way Rafael Nadal (who won Sunday in five sets) and so many Spaniards before him have dominated Roland Garros.That tennis at the highest level is contested on different surfaces is as normal to tennis fans as fuzzy yellow balls and grunting forehands, but it is one of the great quirks of the sport. Imagine for a moment if the N.B.A. played 70 percent of its games on hardwood, 20 percent on rubber and 10 percent on rag wool carpeting. That is essentially what professional tennis players do, spending the first three months on hardcourts, the next two on clay, roughly six weeks on grass, and then most of the rest of the year back on hardcourts.While the surfaces have become more similar in recent years, each requires a unique set of skills and produces a very different style of play.Grass and clay are at the extremes, with grass being the fastest of the three surfaces. A player from the Mont Rouge Tennis Club in action in an inter-club men’s match.Valentin Simon, left, the son of professional player Gilles Simon, and Jules Haehnel, center, the son of Jérome Haehnel, best known for defeating Andre Agassi in 2004 at Roland Garros, taking a lesson from Benjamin Marty.Clay is the slowest. The ball pops off the dirt and hangs in the air for a split-second longer, allowing players to catch up with it and extend rallies, and forcing them to play a more tactical style, grinding from the baseline.Watch an hour of pro tennis on each surface. If you cut out all the time between points, actual tennis playing on clay accounts for about 13 minutes, according to multiple studies of energy and effort in the sport. That is significantly more than on other surfaces, where the player returning serve is at a more severe disadvantage and can struggle to put the ball back in play.Hard courts are at roughly the halfway point, and require an all-around game.Among the pros, the red clay is both loved and loathed.“I don’t like it much,” said Daniil Medvedev of Russia, the world’s second ranked male player, who struggled for years to win a match at the French Open and reached the fourth round on Saturday.Nick Kyrgios of Australia has no use for the surface and skips the clay-court season altogether. Iga Swiatek of Poland, the world’s top-ranked woman, would spend her whole career sliding around on it if she could.Edouard Villoslada, 22, practiced his serve under the eye of a former ATP player, Aurelio Di Zazzo, on one of the clay courts at the Tennis Club of Paris.Members of the club playing on the indoor courts.Winning on clay requires a Ph.D. in what coaches and players call “point construction,” which is shorthand for playing tennis like chess, thinking not only about this next shot, but three shots down the line. Learning that to the point where it is instinctual can take years, and like most things, the earlier one starts training the brain to think that way, the better.“On clay, the fight really goes on and on,” said Aurelio Di Zazzo, a coach at the Tennis Club of Paris. “The longer the effort, the more you have to use your mind.”The club, which is less than a mile from Roland Garros, tries to carry red clay’s torch as best it can. That torch is not cheap. Maintaining the courts requires four full-time employees, and new clay costs more than $2,000 a year for each court. Each court must be entirely dug up and redone every 15 years, costing more than $30,000 per court.Levy said it is worth it.“This clay is a part of France,” he said.France’s tennis federation agrees. The organization also really wants a French Open singles champion. It is scheduled to announce a new plan to promote tennis on the “terre battue” in July. Perhaps that can help. More

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      It’s Djokovic vs. Nadal, the French Open Rematch We’ve Been Waiting For

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      Djokovic, the world No. 1, and Nadal, the 13-time French Open champion, will continue their epic rivalry on Tuesday in the quarterfinal at Roland Garros.PARIS — As the kids like to say these days, it’s on.Far sooner than many may have hoped, Novak Djokovic, the reigning French Open champion, will take on Rafael Nadal, a 13-time champion at Roland Garros, in a quarterfinal match on Tuesday, the first rematch of two of the leading men’s players since their epic semifinal last June.It took some of Nadal’s greatest tennis to survive a five-set, four-hour, 21-minute thriller Sunday evening against Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada, but the match that so many crave is on the horizon.“A huge challenge and probably the biggest one that you can have here in Roland Garros,” Djokovic said, anticipating Nadal, after his fourth straight-sets win, 6-1, 6-3, 6-3, a pummeling of Diego Schwartzman of Argentina. “I’m ready for it.”Perhaps more than Nadal, who survived one of the great scares of his storied French Open career against Auger-Aliassime, the athletic and tireless Canadian with a booming serve and big forehand.“We have a lot of history together,” Nadal said of Djokovic.They have played each other 58 times, with Djokovic holding a 30-28 edge. It is a classic clash of styles, Nadal blasting away and running wild on the clay, his favorite surface, and Djokovic bringing his exquisite timing, incomparable steel, and the most varied arsenal in the game.Even more, it is a clash of two men whose personalities and trajectories, especially over the past year, have pushed them into different realms of the sport and public consciousness. One is a beloved citizen of the world, the other a polarizing, outspoken iconoclast so set in his beliefs that he was prepared to spend his last prime years on the sidelines rather than receive a vaccination against Covid-19.There were scattered boos as Djokovic was introduced on the Suzanne Lenglen Court on Sunday. Fans at the main court, Philippe Chatrier, chanted “Rafa, Rafa,” through the evening, urging on the Spanish champion who is immortalized with a nine-foot statue outside the stadium.Since Djokovic pulled off the nearly impossible by beating Nadal at last year’s French Open, Nadal has been jousting indirectly with his chief rival.Novak Djokovic beat Diego Schwartzman in straight sets on Sunday to advance to the quarterfinals against Nadal.Julien De Rosa/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesDjokovic mounted an all-out quest last year to pull ahead of Nadal and Roger Federer in Grand Slam tournament titles and nearly did it, evening the Big Three at 20 wins each for six months and coming within one match of surging ahead. Nadal, who largely ended his 2021 season after the French Open because of a chronic foot injury, said finishing his career with the most major championships mattered little to him.Djokovic has refused to get vaccinated and questioned established science. Nadal got vaccinated long ago, because, he said, he is a tennis player and in no position to question what experts say is best for public health.Djokovic has tried to spearhead an independent players organization, the Professional Tennis Players Association, which he launched with a handful of other players in 2020. Nadal has refused to join the group and remains a member of the player council of the ATP, which has kept Djokovic’s organization on the outside of the sport’s decision-making process.On the court, they have captured each other’s most treasured possessions. After beating Nadal in the semifinals last year, Djokovic erased a two-set deficit and beat Stefanos Tsitsipas in the final to win his second French Open title.In January, after being largely inactive for six months, unsure whether his foot would ever allow him to play again, Nadal won the Australian Open, which Djokovic had won nine times, more than any other Grand Slam tournament.Djokovic had won three consecutive Australian Opens and traveled to the country expecting to be allowed to defend his titles. He had tested positive for Covid-19 and recovered in mid-December. He thought that was supposed to gain him entry into the country despite its strict rules prohibiting unvaccinated visitors. He was detained at the border and deported after government officials deemed his stance against vaccinations a threat to public health.As the controversy unfolded, Nadal said in some ways he felt sorry for his rival, then kicked a bit of dirt at Djokovic, who was locked in a Melbourne hotel with asylum seekers.“He knew the conditions since a lot of months ago,” Nadal said, “so he makes his own decision.”The shadow sparring has continued in Paris. Djokovic complained that the ATP had not involved his player organization in its discussions with Wimbledon after the tournament barred players from Russia and Belarus in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The tour responded by announcing it would not award rankings points for the event, a move Nadal defended as necessary for protecting all players.They even have different approaches to their careers. Djokovic said Sunday that being ranked No. 1 was “was always the highest goal beginning every season, particularly being in the era with Federer, Nadal.”A few hours later, Nadal, currently ranked fifth, said he never paid any attention to his ranking. Just a number. Not important to him.With their showdown now less than 48 hours away, the conversation has turned to whether they will play during the day or night, with each making his preference known to tournament organizers.Djokovic, left, and Nadal in their semifinal match at the 2021 French Open.Pete Kiehart for The New York TimesNadal favors playing during the day, when the weather is warmer, and the ball bounces high off the clay, right into his wheelhouse, and flies off his racket.Djokovic excels at night, especially in Australia and at the U.S. Open, when conditions are colder and slower. His match against Nadal last year turned when the sun went down, the temperature dropped and Nadal struggled to hit the ball through the court. Nadal said last week he did not believe clay-court tennis should happen at night. Too cold and too damp, which makes the clay stick to balls, giving them the feel of heavy rocks on his racket.Nadal won the initial scheduling battle Sunday, playing his match on the Philippe Chatrier Court. Organizers put Djokovic on the second court, Suzanne Lenglen, a smaller and more open venue with just one level of seats, making it susceptible to high winds.Djokovic managed the challenge, making Schwartzman seem like a sparring partner who forced Djokovic to run and stay on the court long enough — a little more than two hours — but not too long. After one spirited sprint to the net for a perfectly feathered drop-shot return, he put his finger to his ear, asking the crowd to give him his due.Nadal had no such concerns, though he struggled from the start of the chilly and breezy evening. Forty minutes into the match, he was down 5-1 and two breaks of serve, the rarest of events for someone who came into the match with a 108-3 record in this tournament.Nadal often kicks clean the nub of tape in the middle of the baseline before heading to his chair for a changeover. As Auger-Aliassime, pumped his fist after clinching the first set, 6-3, Nadal spent an extra few seconds working the line with his foot, taking an extra moment seemingly to prepare for the challenging places this match was going.Nadal appeared to take control of the match in winning the second and third sets but, unlike Djokovic, Nadal has been anything but clinical at Roland Garros this year, losing opportunities to close out opponents like the assassin he has been in years past.It happened again on Sunday. In the end, at the crucial moments of the last two games in the final set, it took a magical, on-the-run forehand flick for a down-the-line passing shot, an all-out sprint to catch up to a drop volley, a perfect second serve on the T, two more all-out chases and two deep, signature forehands for Nadal to set up his showdown with Djokovic.Just as everyone was hoping. More