Tennis great names Iga Swiatek’s biggest threat at US Open
There are “six or eight women” who could win a major, but Chris Evert believes defending champion Iga Swiatek will have one big threat at the US Open.
World No 1 Swiatek is looking to become the first woman to successfully defend her title at Flushing Meadows since Serena Williams won three tournaments in a row from 2014 to 2016.
And since that Williams victory in 2016, eight different players have won the season-ending Grand Slam and Swiatek will be hoping to put an end to that streak over the next fortnight.
Added to that, there have already been two first-time Grand Slam winners this year with Aryna Sabalenka winning the Australian Open and Marekta Vondrusova claiming the Wimbledon title.
Former world No 1 Evert says the recent Grand Slam winners as well as three-time major finalist Ons Jabeur cannot be discounted while women’s tennis has a long history of dark horses winning Slams, but she feels the in-form Coco Gauff will be Swiatek’s biggest challenger.
“As far as the women, it’s obvious that one of six or eight women could win a major. You look at Sabalenka winning Australia and [Elena] Rybakina winning [Wimbledon last year] and Vondrusova winning [this year],” the 18-time Grand Slam singles champion, said during an ESPN preview chat.
“It’s obvious there are players at a very high level that can win. It depends on the draw.
“Like Ons Jabeur had a very tough draw at Wimbledon, I think had two or three tremendous wins in a row over top players, and just didn’t have enough left in the finals.
“I just think it has to do with winning seven consecutive matches and just being consistent, and I think having a good draw really does help.
“But I would say Coco to me would be Iga’s biggest threat at this moment.”
The Rise of Cocu Gauff in late 2023
Gauff is enjoying her best run of form on the WTA Tour as she is 11-1 during the North American hard-court swing.
After winning the WTA 500 Citi DC Open, she lost in the quarter-final of the Canadian Open before winning maiden WTA 1000 title at the Cincinnati Open, defeating Swiatek in the semi-final and Karolina Muchova in the final.
Gauff reached the second week of the US Open for the first time last year as she made it to the quarter-final before going down in straight sets against Caroline Garcia.
