Bartoli tips Gauff, Halep for US Open success

The former Wimbledon champion believes world No 1 Iga Swiatek is vulnerable on fast courts, leaving the door open for others to triumph

Halep – Gauff, Wimbledon 2019

Simon Cambers

August 28, 2022

Former Wimbledon champion Marion Bartoli has picked out Coco Gauff and Simona Halep as potential winners of the US Open, which begins on Monday.

Former world No 1 Halep, back on top form after a recent victory in Toronto, is chasing her third Grand Slam title and first since teaming up with Patrick Mouratoglou earlier this year.

American teenager Gauff, the runner-up at the French Open in June, is trying to win her first Grand Slam title.

“I think Coco Gauff or Simona Halep could be the potential winners, from my point of view,” Bartoli told the latest edition of Match Points (beginning at 23.00)

Simona Halep hard at work on Arthur Ashe getting ready for the start of the US Open. pic.twitter.com/sUcYG1ET17
— Romanian Tennis (@WTARomania) August 20, 2022

Bartoli said Gauff and Halep could be better suited to conditions than the likes of world No 1 Iga Swiatek, who has struggled a little since winning a second Roland-Garros earlier this summer, losing in the third round at Wimbledon and winning just two matches in two hard-court events leading into the US Open.

“I don’t think she likes the balls, she said about it, they’re flying, they’re lighter,” she said. “I think she needs more time to play.

Swiatek vulnerable in fast conditions

“I think the loss in her home tournament, when she lost to Caroline Garcia (in the quarter-finals) really hurt her,” Bartoli said. “OK, at Wimbledon…she was really exhausted…so you could understand that early defeat.

“But then coming into her home tournament on clay and she lost in three sets, I think that has started to get her doubts coming. We know she can be very emotional when she starts not to feel her forehand, when things don’t go really well. We saw it at the US Open last year, when we saw some tears. I think that could also start to happen – if she doesn’t feel her timing on her forehand, that starts to creep in her head and she can only focus on that, only focus on the negativity.

“I don’t think I would put her as my favourite to win. Could she be in the second week or quarter-final, I surely think it, but to go all the way and win the title, I don’t think so.”