Emma Raducanu’s US Open triumph showed any player can challenge for Grand Slam titles in women’s tennis, says French Open quarter-finalist Coco Gauff.
The women’s draw at Roland Garros is wide open after a string of upsets left world number one Iga Swiatek as the sole top-10 player remaining.
“I’m thinking, especially if the US Open taught us anything, that anybody can win on any day,” said Gauff, 18.
Like Raducanu, Gauff burst on to the scene at Wimbledon, the American with a run to the fourth round in 2019 and Raducanu exiting at the same stage two years later.
Raducanu was knocked out of her maiden French Open in the second round but Gauff, seeded 18th, is through to the quarter-finals for the second successive year after victory over Elise Mertens on Sunday.
Shock defeats for Aryna Sabalenka and Paula Badosa on Saturday – as well as even earlier exits for other top seeds, such as defending champion Barbora Krejcikova and Wimbledon runner-up Karolina Pliskova – have seemingly paved the way for Swiatek to win her second title at Roland Garros.
Swiatek, who won her only Grand Slam in 2020, is on a 31-match winning streak and has not dropped a set at the tournament yet. The Pole faces Chinese world number 74 Zheng Qinwen for a place in the quarter-finals on Monday.
Like Gauff, Canada’s 17th seed and fellow teenager Leylah Fernandez – whom Raducanu beat in the US Open final – has booked her place in the last eight, where she will meet Italy’s Martina Trevisan.
“I think for me I’ve always believed that I could go far, but for other players I think so as well,” added Gauff, who will face compatriot Sloane Stephens, the 2017 US Open champion, in the last eight.
“In this tournament, both sides of the draw, with the exception of Iga, there are a lot of lower-seeded and lower-ranked players still left in the tournament.
“So I really think that players believe that. Other players believe that. I think a lot of it stems from that tournament.”