American tennis player Coco Gauff defeated Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka 6-7 (5), 6-2, 6-4 this Saturday, to become the champion of Roland Garros, her second Grand Slam after the 2023 US Open.
Since Serena Williams in 2015, no American tennis player had lifted the trophy at the Philippe Chatrier stadium.
How was Gauff’s victory over Sabalenka?
Gauff, finalist in 2022 in Paris, reigned on the clay of the French Open after almost three hours of a tense final between the two best players in the world.
The American player recovered from a tremendous first set that favored Sabalenka to clinch her first title of the season, the tenth of her career, and win again for the first time since being crowned champion at the WTA Finals in 2024.
The 21-year-old American once again managed to stop the powerful Belarusian, despite the three-time Grand Slam champion taking the first set full of exchanges. However, Gauff left clues of her relentless fight by forcing a tiebreak from a 4-1 disadvantage. The recent champion in Madrid, precisely against her conqueror in the Parisian center court, faced the resistance of a Gauff who started the second set by breaking her opponent’s serve.
The American player came back from 4-1 down and finished to force the third set, in the middle of a final uncomfortable due to the wind. Sabalenka then started making more errors than ever, or at least in a long time, as well as lost serves, and Gauff took advantage again to seal the Suzanne Lenglen Cup after saving a break point that Sabalenka will remember for a long time.
Just like she did in New York two years ago, Gauff turned around a first set against the Belarusian to conquer Roland Garros.