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Coco Gauff stepped into the tennis history books with her 6-7, 6-2, 6-4 victory over Aryna Sabalenka in the women’s final of the 2025 French Open Tennis Championship.
Gauff, the second seed, defeated the top-seeded Sabalenka after dropping the first set to become the first American to win a singles title at the French Open since Serena Williams pulled off the feat back in 2015. She also recorded two other milestone achievements: becoming the first woman in tennis history to stage comeback victories for her first two major tennis titles. The other was over the Belarussian in the 2023 U.S. Open, snapping the No. 1 seed’s 18-match victory streak after winning the first set of a match.
This contest turned out to be too difficult a mental strain for Sabalenka, who showed a lack of character with her petulant behavior, first, screaming at her coach (and herself) while Gauff was taking over the match, and second, making her post-match comments. She said, “This is the worst final I ever played. The [court] conditions were terrible. And in these conditions, she was better than me.”
If that wasn’t low enough to sink, Sabalenka took a submarine plunge to deeper depths of ignominy.
Gauff beat Aryna Sabalenka in three sets to claim her second Grand Slam title. PHOTO: LISI NEISNER
“On another day, Iga Swiatek could have beaten Gauff,” said Sabalenka. “If she had beaten me in the semifinals, she would have beaten her. She (Gauff) didn’t make spectacular shots to beat me.”
Gauff, to her credit, took the high road, saying “I refuse to get into any controversy. This is the way the tournament played out. I played my game and beat my opponent in the championship game. As far as the Swiatek thing goes, with no disrespect to Iga, I recently beat her in straight sets the last time we played. I don’t know why Aryna would go down that road; I don’t agree with her thinking.”
The fact that Sabalenka committed 70 unforced errors is the key reason for her defeat. Another critical point is that Gauff forced her into many of these errors by keeping constant pressure on her.
History will also show that Sabalenka lost the Australian Open singles title to Madison Keys, making it back-to-back Grand Slam tennis title losses to Black women.
The bigger issue for Gauff is her continued pursuit of greatness in the game of tennis. Since her breakthrough in winning the 2023 U.S. Open, her critics have said that she should be further along in her quest for more grand slam tennis titles. Those same critics point to her age, 21, lack of maturity, and conditioning as points of concern.
However, there are differing opinions. Gauff is a rising tennis star who faces all the pressures that come with that position. Visually, one can see that her body structure is bigger and stronger than it was just a year ago and that she can now match up against big and strong female players like Sabalenka. And her on-court maturity was clearly in evidence during her French Open title match.
When she broke Sabalenka, both physically and mentally in the second set winning it 6-2, you got the feeling that Gauff had crossed a major hurdle in her tennis career. By the time Sabalenka hit a cross volley wide of her intended mark on match point, ending the final set at 6-4 in favor of Gauff, women’s tennis had its newest two-time major winner.
Coco Gauff is the name, and tennis is her game.
Carlos Alcaraz rallied from two sets down to win his second straight tournament at Roland Garros. PHOTO: STEPHANIE LECOCQ
On the men’s side of the net, Carlos Alcaraz successfully defended his French Open title with a stunning five-set victory over top-seeded Jannick Sinner of Italy. Alcaraz, the No. 2 seed, had to save three match points enroute to winning his fifth major Grand Slam tennis tournament by the final line score of 4-6, 6-7 (4), 6-4, 7-6 (3), and 7-6 (10-2). This was the longest finals match in the French Open history, breaking the previous record set by Sweden’s Mats Wilander’s defeat of Argentinian Guillermo Vilas in 1982.
“The level at the end was absolutely ridiculous,” said Wilander, doing the French Open Final analysis for broadcaster TNT. “I cannot believe we will have this rivalry. They have taken our sport to another level. I never thought I’d say that after the big three — Roger [Federer], Rafa [Nadal], and Novak [Djokovic] — but it’s actually faster than ever and a level that is hard to believe.”
The 22-year-old star from Spain just refused to give it up to Sinner, whom he has beaten the last five times the two have met since 2024. He is now 5-0 in Grand Slam championship matches, with this one falling into the all-time classic category.
Furthermore, the Spaniard, at 22 years, one month, and three days, has matched his countryman, Rafael Nadal’s, accomplishment of winning five Grand Slams at the same age. Sinner is currently the No. 1 player in the world and was dominant in the first two sets, reaching match point three times during this titanic match.
The last six majors have been won by either Alcaraz or Sinner. Sinner won the 2024 Australian Open and U.S. Open, and Alcaraz won the French Open and Wimbledon.
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