Krawczyk, Guarachi Go for Gold in Paris
Desirae Krawczyk ITF bio | Alexa Guarachi ITF bio | French Open Draws | French Open Order of Play
PARIS - The next one's for gold!
Doubles world No. 38 and Sun Devil Forever Desirae Krawczyk '16 and partner Alexa Guarachi (Alabama '13) topped Nicole Melichar/ Iga Swiatek 7-6(5), 1-6, 6-4 Friday morning in the French Open to reach their first-ever Grand Slam final. The 14-seeded pair play No. 2 seeded defending champions Timea Babos and Kristina Mladenovic Sunday in Paris.
"Every player dreams of becoming a Grand Slam champion," Krawczyk said after the match. "After the match today it hit me, I just cried. For us as a team, we're the underdogs, it's our first Slam final. It's great to experience this with a friend and we have to go out there and enjoy it, bring all of our energy. We're so thrilled to get the win today and we definitely want more so we're going to enjoy this and get ready for the next match on Sunday."
FINALS HERE WE COME!!?????? @rolandgarros #LFG #chipotleday14 #foldoutFTW
Krawczyk and Guarachi have been lights-out since the tournament started, dropping just two sets now through their first five matches. The pair opened with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over No. 229 Ellen Perez and No. 278 Storm Sanders of Australia before topping Americans No. 68 Lauren Davis and No. 70 Sabrina Santamaria 2-6, 6-3, 6-1. Round three featured Krawczyk and Guarachi winning 6-4, 7-5 over No. 37 Barbora Strycova and No. 63 Su-wei Hsieh.
The pair is chasing their third doubles title together and second of 2020. Krawczyk and Guarachi won the Gstaad Ladies Championship in Switzerland in 2018 and took home gold at the TEB BNP Paribas Tennis Championship in Istanbul on Sept. 13. In total, Krawczyk has 10 professional doubles titles to her name and is playing in her eighth Grand Slam. This is the furthest she's ever gotten in a Slam, she previously reached the round of 16 in both the 2019 Australian and French tournaments.
And the SUN DEVILS and CRIMSON TIDE have GRAND SLAM FINALISTS as Desirae Krawczyk and her partner Alexa Guarachi gut out a 7-6, 1-6, 6-4 win to reach the FRENCH OPEN DOUBLES FINAL!!!! What an effort ladies???????????? On to play the #2 seeds in the finals. FORKS UP??????
— Sheila McInerney (@asu10s_coachmac) October 9, 2020
How it happened:
Friday's match started with the pairs trading the first four games before Melichar and Swiatek went on a three-game blitz to go up 5-2 in the first set. Krawczyk and Guarachi bucked back with four straight to go up 6-5 before dropping the 12th game to force a set tiebreak that they won.
The second set was all Melichar and Swiatek, the duo dropping just the second game in a clean sweep.
The third and final set was the closest of the day. Both sides traded games all the way until the seventh when Krawczyk and Guarachi rallied from down 4-3 to win the next three-straight games to clinch the day.