WTA Dubai: Iga Swiatek easily dominates Cori Gauff (6-4, 6-2) and rushes to the final

She keeps freaking out the counters. Iga Swiatek is sweeping away opponent after opponent regardless of their standings at the moment. On Friday, the world number 1 chained her 6th victory on the circuit (12 sets won consecutively) to qualify for her second final in a row (after her title in Doha). In Dubai, she left only six games to the American Cori Gauff (6-4, 6-2) in 1:28, in a half yet attractive on paper. She will try to win her second trophy against Jessica Pegula or Barbora Krejcikova who face each other later in the day.

Six duels and each time the same scenario. Cori Gauff can’t find the solution against Iga Swiatek, from whom she still hasn’t taken a single set. But she can reassure herself by telling herself that she hasn’t conceded 6-0 like most of the Polish opponents at the moment. The consolation prize is very meager as the American seems powerless: led 5-2 double break in the first act and very quickly 4-0 in the second, she could have lost even more widely on Friday.

However, we cannot blame him for a lack of combativeness: Gauff therefore managed to recover one of his two late breaks in the first set, even saving four set points. But faced with the infernal pace of Swiatek, she often cracked on the forehand side. The young world number 6 especially suffered martyrdom on her second balls (less than 23% success, 5 points scored out of 22), constantly attacked. With her ultra-precocious ball, the Pole never gave her rival time to organize herself. She is definitely moving into another category right now.