Over the past two years of her young career, Coco Gauff has stared down Iga Swiatek seven times across three different continents. The 19-year-old has faced no other player as frequently and on paper it should be a tantalising match-up between the undisputed No 1 and the highest-ranked teenager in the world.
Instead, from Gauff’s perspective, it had been a disaster. Not only had she lost all seven of their meetings and all 14 of their sets before this week, but she wasn’t even close. In their last six meetings, Gauff averaged just four games per match.
