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ROLAND GARROS – The 2025 Roland Garros women’s singles final was, in the end, two separate storylines merged into one uneven, but stirringly dramatic tennis match.
Mostly, it was about 21-year-old Coco Gauff, six years the junior of opponent Aryna Sabalenka, who would let nothing deter her on this day.
Not her opponent’s smoking-hot start. Not the brutal, windy, nigh-on-impossible conditions. Not the scar tissue from having come up short in previous opportunities.
The American stepped up to the moment, while her 27-year-old opponent took a step back.
Neither could happen without the other.
That’s the thing about tennis. Unlike a sport like golf where it’s both players against the course, in tennis what one does – or doesn’t do – directly affects that the other does – or doesn’t do.
Gauff’s 6-7 (5), 6-2, 6-4 win earned her a maiden first Roland Garros title and a second Grand Slam title overall, to add to her title at the US Open in 2023.
And it was a second straight loss to Gauff in a Grand Slam final for Sabalenka who, despite all of the self-flagellation after the loss, needs to look at the mechanics of both these defeats with a clear head once the smoke clears and the tears are dried.
“I do think this was one of the tournaments that when I was younger that I felt I had the best shot of winning. So I just felt like if I went through my career and didn’t get at least one of these, I would feel regrets and stuff,” Gauff said. “Today, playing Aryna, I was just, like, ‘I just gotta go for it and try my best to get through the match.’ Yeah, that’s what I did.”
Gauff accepted “not perfect” on this day. And, as it happened, the two areas of her game that are the least technically and tactically sound and can let her down on the big occasion – the second serve, and the forehand – did not let her down on this day.
She hit her forehand about as well as she could be expected to. Especially given the conditions.
Why that was, and how she can bottle that going forward, should certainly be a team project. If she can duplicate that, there’s no telling how many more big trophies she can bag.
For Sabalenka, conversely, it was a step back.
She has worked so hard in the last few years to even out those on-court emotions. They make her eminently watchable, because you feel like you’re suffering along with her on her quest. But they also are what hold her back – less so these days. But very much so on this day.
Sabalenka has inarguably been the most consistent bet in women’s tennis this season.
Considering where she’s been, that’s saying a lot. Although it’s also in part a statement on the women’s game.
But on this day, the playing conditions unraveled her. Completely.
“Obviously I’ve been doing really well with that in the last couple of years. It’s just like sometimes, you know, you go to the old habit,” she said.
And yet, despite 70 unforced errors on the day – more than double the 30 posted by Gauff – Sabalenka still had every shot at winning.
When the smoke clears, that should comfort her some.
In the meantime, her self-assessment was brutal. And not, the way some people have decided to interpret it, as a slight to Gauff. She gave full credit to the American for handling the conditions a lot better than she did, and being the better player on the day.
On the tennis side, Sabalenka is the more dangerous player even allowing for, and admiring, Gauff’s supreme defensive skills.
What’s the old saying?
Defence wins championships?
Maybe it does, especially in tough conditions. As much as your timing when you smack the ball might be completely put off, your legs can always keep moving.
But in her post-match emotions, and in her third language, Sabalenka let it out.
“It was really, honestly, the worst tennis I’ve played in the last, I don’t know, how many months” said Sabalenka, who had to pause a couple of times before speaking during the trophy ceremony to try to compose herself.
She did not, as has become a trademark, jokingly blame a defeat on her long-suffering team. She was too disconsolate to joke.
Gauff said that she warmed up for the final under the Court Philippe-Chatrier roof. Until maybe half an hour before the match, they didn’t know if they would play with the roof closed or open.
(In the end, they closed the roof during the trophy ceremony when it began to rain).
This was a far bigger decision than it might seem.
The wind was howling, more at some moments then others, but never quiet. And on Court Philippe-Chatrier, with the roof open, a windy day creates a huge imbalance depending on what side of the court you’re playing on.
It was a game-changer.
And it begged the question: why did the tournament opt to close the roof before the start of the men’s semifinal between Carlos Alcaraz and Lorenzo Musetti, but not for this one?
There was some potential rain forecast for that one. Which never happened.
You can’t have it both ways with a roof that takes only minutes to close and can be operated while the players continue to play.
If your contention is it’s an “outdoor tournament” – which it is – you leave the roof open until it rains.
If you’re on the side of “the conditions outside are tough, we have the roof, let’s use it”, well, then, you close it for this women’s final.
It was a determining factor because as much as the conditions were the same for both players – that old cliché – they had far more of a deleterious effect on the game of Sabalenka.
She aims for the lines, which you can’t do when the wind is howling and swirling. Her movement isn’t close to the supreme level Gauff possesses; all of those little extra steps required to adjust to every single ball are something the American does so much better.
Too often, Sabalenka was caught flat-footed by a deep return. Or she didn’t get out of the way of a ball that detoured too close to her body at the last minute by a gust of wind.
Gauff almost never looked that way, playing in the same conditions.
“I knew I was frustrated. Maybe I didn’t show it as much, but in my head I was frustrated. And I know if I’m frustrated, then my opponent has to be frustrated,” Gauff said. “It was not a day for great tennis, honestly. I don’t know too many people that could play great tennis today. But you know, it’s part of the sport and part of playing outside.”
The otherwise cold, clammy conditions also made it tougher for Sabalenka to hit winners against a player who will get ball after ball back, and force her into going for more and more.
So the deck was stacked against Sabalenka with this decision. But life deals you a hand with a couple of jokers in it sometimes; what matters is how you turn that into a full house.
Sabalenka faltered majestically in that quest. And yet, she STILL had a great shot at winning the match.
The deck was stacked in favour of Gauff’s game style. Still, the American also needed her second serve and her forehand to cooperate. And, to a large extent, they came through for her.
If the criticisms of Gauff’s Grand-Slam winning game style seem harsh, it likely is because she is a supreme athlete who … chooses to be a defensive player. The thing is, most people just believe she can be so much more than that. So in effect, they’re judging her against her unlimited potential.
It’s an astonishing contradiction. Beyond the speed of her first serve – she hit one at 199 km/h in the final – Gauff’s game style is too often predicated on making her opponents miss.
That’s probably what Sabalenka still can’t quite grasp, because she’s mostly looking at only her side of the net. But it’s a skill that, while not as flashy and crowd-pleasing as a huge forehand winner, is every bit as valuable.
But when you’ve spent years wondering if your second serve is going to go in that day, if your forehand is going to hold up under pressure, you almost have no choice but to play that way. Especially if you have the physical skills to do it.
When a player is this established, it’s exponentially hard to change technique no matter how many coaches you bring in to work on it. The muscle memory is dug in.
The basics of technique have to be programmed in from the earliest age. It’s hard to learn net play in singles, or an effective slice backhand and when to use it, once a player is on the pro tour with all that pressure to win.
That’s why you rarely see a player remake their game at this level.
But as with so many players whose non-tennis-knowledgeable parents had too big a hand in the development, those basics fell to the side while the early-career match-winning was happening.
The forest for the trees, and all that.
When Gauff won that US Open, former coach Brad Gilbert was able to give her the tools to deal with it: keep that forehand in the court, mostly down the line to the opponents’ backhand, and try to turn the rally into a battle of cross-court backhands that you’ll win more often than not.
It worked. But of course, it was a band-aid to a problem that might never have a permanent solution.
On this particular day, getting that forehand into play was a secret weapon. Especially against the wind.
The slower, loopy ball was exactly what Sabalenka DIDN’T want to deal with in these conditions. It gave the ball more time to move, to sway, to detour, to slow down even further and shatter her already-fragile timing.
And the more mistakes Sabalenka made, especially on the backhand that needed to go down the line to Gauff’s forehand but more often than not, went wide – the more her brain exploded.
Sabalenka allowed that those higher, loopy balls savaged her.
“I couldn’t really mix it up. It was tricky in these conditions to do stuff that I was doing, for example, in Madrid that I know I have to do against her to get the win,” she said.
And yet, she started on fire. She was up 4-1, 40-love. And after two double faults and a drop-shot attempt that came far too early in the point and failed, the tide turned.
“I think it got more windy. Also, I think I was overemotional. I think today I didn’t really handle myself quite well mentally, I would say. So basically that’s it,” Sabalenka said. “I was just making unforced errors. I don’t know, I have to check the statistics. But I think she won the match not because she played incredible; just because I made all of those mistakes from – if you look from the outside – from easy balls.”
Sabalenka ended up eking out that first set. But it took nearly an hour and 20 minutes and took a lot out of her, both physically and mentally.
And as her physical resistence ebbed so, too, did her ability to shake off her emotional demons.
Meanwhile, Gauff impressively stayed the course.
For Gauff, who remembered how awful she felt after losing that 2022 Roland Garros final to Iga Swiatek (and after the three straight-set dismissals at the hands of the four-time champion the last three years in Paris), there was a quiet determination not to feel that way again.
She did everything in her power to make that happen.
And she also proved to herself that on a huge occasion, her forehand and second serve can show up. She hit her forehand especially well in this final – even if half the time she was on her back foot and off-balance as she so often is.
Perhaps the drop in expectations made necessary by the tough conditions took the pressure off.
As for Sabalenka, she shouldn’t let this heartbreaker distract her from the incremental progress she has shown on the clay this year.
As pure a power player as you’ll find, the Belarussian has dipped her toes into the waters of the change of pace, the finishing off of points at the net – in short, the crafting of points that still remains a staple on the clay and can work on all surfaces.
She has to work on making a matchup against a player who chases everything down work in her favour when things aren’t going perfectly according to plan.
In other words, she has to learn to grind a little better, if the situation demands it.
Or this will happen again.
“I think it’s another tough final in the Grand Slam against Coco. Another terrible performance from me against Coco in the final. Yeah, I have to just kind of step back and look at this from the perspective and try to finally learn the lesson, “ she said. “Because I cannot go out there every time against her in the finals of the Grand Slam and play such terrible tennis and give those wins – not easily, but like, emotionally, you know?”
The six-years-younger Gauff kept her emotions in check far better than her opponent.
She accepted “less than perfect”.
She made chicken soup out of chicken … poop.
And she was the one holding up the big trophy at the end. With many more to come, you would think.
(All screenshots from Amazon Prime’s broadcast of the Roland Garros women’s singles final).
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