Second major trophy for 21-year-old American.
World No. 2 Coco Gauff proved that her clay court game is good enough to overturn any rankings, beating top seed Aryna Sabalenka 6-7(5) 6-2 6-4 to be crowned the women’s singles champion at Roland Garros 2025. The American used her lightning speed to frustrate her Belarusian counterpart from the back of the court. In the end, Sabalenka produced way too many unforced errors on the night.
Sabalenka, who entered the tournament with a goal of proving that she is destined for clay court glory, completely outhit Gauff from the baseline in the initial exchanges. Moreover, the 27-year-old left the 2023 US Open champion stunned with some great variation – ably using slices to keep Gauff on her toes. Unfortunately, Sabalenka’s brute force resulted in a combination of errors and fatigue as the match went on. It turned out to be a counter-attacking masterclass from an expert stroke-maker in Gauff.
Gauff struggled to hold serve at the onset of the match, falling to a 1-4 scoreline very early. However, just like Iga Swiatek managed to do in the semifinals, the 21-year-old pulled back to equalise at 4-4. Pulling out the drop shot to test Sabalenka’s fleet-footed ability, Gauff dragged the set to a tiebreak. There were several long exchanges – it was the World No. 1 who held her nerve to win the opening set.
In the beginning of the second set, it was clear that Sabalenka was partially gassed out. Striking 70 unforced errors during the course of the encounter, the 27-year-old ran out of luck eventually. She failed to win more than 50% points on either first or second serve, and particularly struggled with the low bouncing balls fed to her. The Belarusian repeatedly took out her frustration at her box, but it was to minimal avail.
The winner count read 37-30 in favour of Sabalenka; while the powerhouse is used to dominating her opposition, this statistic is enough to prove that she had her work cut out. Despite being close to holding serve at 1-1 in the decider, the tigress threw in some drop shots that proved costly. It seemed like every time she pulled herself back into the match, Gauff maintained the composure to go back in front.
Serving for the match, Coco Gauff faced break points as her opponent looked to crawl back and produce a comeback. But as all great champions do, the prodigious American ensured that she didn’t go 0-2 in Roland Garros finals. An edge of the seat thriller drew to a close with the backdrop of gasps from the crowd – as a backhand from Sabalenka sailed wide and Gauff collapsed to the ground in tears.
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Coco Gauff required 2 hours 38 minutes to etch her name in history, as well as on the Coupe Suzanne Lenglen. She improved her head to head against Sabalenka to 6-5, and captured her second Grand Slam championship on a glorious Saturday evening.
