By Richard Pagliaro | @Tennis_Now | Saturday, June 7, 2025
Photo credit: Julien De Rosa/AFP/Getty
Tears trickled down her cheeks as an anguished Aryna Sabalenka tried to make sense of the emotional wreckage.
In the first French Open final between the world’s top two women in 12 years, No. 2 Coco Gauff was simply too tough for No. 1 Sabalenka at crunch time today.
A resilient Coco Gauff combated Aryna Sabalenka’s fierce power with pure poise pulling off a 6-7(5), 6-2, 6-4 comeback to capture her maiden Roland Garros championship in a thriller.
Afterward, the world’s best player called it her worst final.
“It was really honestly the worst tennis I’ve played in the last, I don’t know, in the last I don’t know how many month,” Sabalenka told the media in Paris afterward. “Conditions were terrible, and she simply was better in these conditions than me. I think it was the worst final I ever played.”
Contesting her third straight major final, Sabalenka fell to 3-3 lifetime in Grand Slam title matches.
The 21-year-old Gauff improved to 6-5 lifetime vs. Sabalenka showing she’s not scared of the Belarusian’s power and exuding a love of a good fight rather than fretting the battle when it gets tight.
After gutting out the opening set tiebreaker, Sabalenka spent much of this match fighting battles on multiple fronts.
The top seed was trying to tame her drives amid a tempestuous wind that sometimes gusted past 25 mph, pierce the speedy Gauff’s vaunted defense and skill making her opponent play one more ball, and soothe the volcanic temper that erupted at times as her dream dissolved in the dirt.
Despite all that drama and self-sabotage, Sabalenka still fought back from 1-3 down in the decider and gained a break point in the final game before Gauff drew two final errors to close a sometime sloppy, but persistently pulsating final in two hours, 38 minutes.
The top seed said at times she felt the tennis universe was playing a cosmic joke on her with Gauff’s running retrievals turning Sabalenka’s damaging drives into punch lines.
“I mean, honestly sometimes it felt like she was hitting the ball from the frame,” Sabalenka said. “Somehow magically the ball lands in the court, and you kind of, like, on the back foot.
“It felt like a joke, honestly, like somebody from above was just staying there laughing, like, let’s see if you can handle this. And I couldn’t today.
“I really hope the next time we play, if it’s going to be the same conditions, I’m going to play probably a little bit smarter, not over-rush things, and yeah, try to stay there and try to fight.”
Many will slam Sabalenka for her post-match remarks, but it’s important to apply some perspective, too.
The adrenaline from this battle was still coursing through her veins when Sabalenka walked into her post-match presser. In retrospect, she have been wiser to take a break to try to let emotions subside and clear her head before meeting the media. It was Sabalenka’s second straight Slam final loss to an underdog American opponent following Madison Keys’ epic Australian Open final upset, which only added to the anguish as the three-time Grand Slam champion could have been halfway to a calendar Grand Slam.
A courageous Keys dethroned two-time defending champion Sabalenka 6-3, 2-6, 7-5 in an inspirational AO showdown pitting premier power players that escalated into stunning slugfest on Rod Laver Arena.
The 19th-seeded Keys drilled a diagonal forehand winner closing the first women’s major final to go to 5-all in the decider since Serena Williams edged Victoria Azarenka in the 2012 US Open final.
So Sabalenka was favored in the last two major finals only to fall frustratingly short.
At the same time, Sabalenka aspires to be an all-surface champion.
One reason she has yet to win a major on clay or grass is those natural surfaces present variable and the woman who can create chaos for opponents hasn’t shown the skills to master unruly conditions on slippery surfaces. That’s what being an all-surface champion requires though so you have to confront the challenge rather than just complain about it.
If Sabalenka ever reviews a replay of this match, she will see areas of improvement tactically, emotionally and competitively. Gauff played cleaner tennis amid chaotic conditions, committing 40 fewer unforced errors and stamping seven love games compared to two for Sabalenka.
When stress came, Sabalenka tried to solve it by squeezing shots closer to the lines—especially on her down the line drives. Instead, she scattered 70 unforced errors.
You can’t fault Sabalenka for targeting Gauff’s weaker forehand wing—it’s a common tactic and the world knows the Delray Beach-born baseliner possesses one of the most damaging two-handed backhands in the game—but to serve nearly exclusively to that forehand on the deuce court, the Belarusian basically played Gauff into a groove on that forehand return. She’s No. 2 in the world if you’re telegraphing your serve to her throughout the match, what do you think will happen?
The US Open champion is a worthy world No. 1, but Gauff was clearly the more composed competitor who met every crisis point as a challenge she could solve, while Sabalenka was grunting, screaming and sometimes wailing at her box looking a little like a flustered contender fretting her time on the salmon stage rather than the world’s premier player.
This loss will sting for quite a long time.
A disconsolate Sabalenka said she will treat the pain with a panacea: Tequila and Gummy Bears.
Hopefully for the Belarusian, bears and booze will chase the Grand Slam ghosts away.
“I already have a flight booked to Mykonos and alcohol, sugar,” Sabalenka said. “I just need couple of days to completely forget about this crazy world and this crazy—if I could swear, I would swear right now, but this crazy thing that happened today…
“Tequila, gummy bears, and I don’t know, swimming, being like the tourist for couple of days.”
