Tennis
French Open
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Updated 1m ago
Aryna Sabalenka is leading Coco Gauff in the opening set of the 2025 French Open women’s singles final.
Gauff (2) is attempting to win her second major title after her 2023 US Open triumph. Sabalenka (1) is looking for her fourth major and her first on the red clay in Paris.
Gauff *4-5 Sabalenka
Sabalenka at 15-0 up is hitting her groundstrokes so cleanly, but she tries to be too cute with a drop shot and gives Gauff a point back without making the American even hit it.
She shrugs her shoulders up and throws her head back in evident frustration. Gauff goes long, 30-15, and Sabalenka with a primal roar. Sabalenka waits for the wind to die down before serving, but double faults anyway!
Tension in the shoulders, maybe. Big serve next up, though, and it's 40-30 and set point. She double-faults again, and Gauff's return accidentally hits her back, to rub salt in the wound.
Gauff makes another unforced error on a second serve, trying to hit diagonally past the net post, and is in the tramlines. Just hit it middle of the court and wait for the mistake! Advantage Sabalenka, another set point.
But Gauff survives, and the Belarusian nets. As the clock ticks past five-and-a-half minutes for the game, Sabalenka overshoots a backhand down the line and Gauff signals it's out! The umpire agrees.
Break point, and Gauff makes Sabalenka play an awkward high backhand. She tries the Hollywood backhand down the line, wide! 15 forced errors to Sabalenka's five. Deuce again!
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Sabalenka has the champion's knack for fighting her way through patchy sets like these, which are actually pretty regular for her.
Big moments coming up to see whether she can close this out…
Gauff had climbed back in by making points stretch. and making Sabalenka hit more high-octane shots. Eventually one went out.
But you need to hold your games.
Gauff 4-5* Sabalenka
Now Coco Gauff is in the groove! Sabalenka is used to dictating points but she's being manipulated ruthlessly around the court, side to side, before a forehand winner.
Sabalenka, though, takes James Hansen's advice by watching a high ball drop out of the sky, letting it bounce rather than immediately smashing it, and taking us to 15-all. Then an ace, and an apology from Gauff, who re-tosses her ball after a gust of wind.
Sabalenka this time does judge a Gauff ball correctly and watches it out. 30-all. Bit tentative from Gauff, she goes narrowly long, and Sabalenka likes that, nodding with satisfaction after earning break point.
That's a poor end to the game from Gauff. Five breaks out of nine so far in this match. More breaks than service holds!
Gauff *4-4 Sabalenka
Ah, Coco. Another unforced error from Gauff off the serve, forehand netted disappointingly. Sabalenka waits to serve, ticked off by noise in the crowd, drawing a word from the umpire.
Gauff makes Sabalenka play one more shot from advantage and it's long, deuce again! Director Spike Lee shouts his congratulations to his compatriot.
Sabalenka in total control of the point, Gauff slides desperately into an attempted lob and Sabalenka should just whack it away at the net. Instead, she thinks it's going out, lets it float over her, and it lands three feet in!
How costly could that be? Pretty costly, as it turns out. Sabalenka slides narrowly long, the umpire confirms it's out. Three games in a row for Gauff, including two breaks. 4-4!
When Iga Świątek came alive against her in their semifinal, Aryna Sabalenka had something of an insurance policy with the roof being on.
When your play and feel for the ball is going away from you on the tennis court, any kind of variable out of your control — a gust of wind, some blown-up clay, the sun and the clouds — can feel like an irritant rather than something you have literally no power over.
To be clear, I don't think she's being affected by the wind.
Environment just adds another layer of complication when things are getting, well, complicated.
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Gauff *3-4 Sabalenka
Sabalenka goes long, 10 points in a row, and another unforced error, 11 on the bounce! Gauff has definitely stepped it up, but how has she lost that feel so quickly?
Tennis is such a mental game at times like these. Sabalenka needs to slow things down, take her time, trust her processes. Oosh, wide and into the tramlines, 12 points in a row. She chews her lip unhappily.
Three break points! One saved as Gauff isn't accurate enough. Two saved as Sabalenka whips a brutal forehand into space. And three saved, Sabalenka has dug herself out!
Gauff goes down on her haunches to hit a flat backhand and Sabalenka just unleashes another winner. Deuce. Catharsis, thy name is Aryna.
This game is still alive, though. Gauff goes for it, error, then nets a backhand return, back to deuce.
Nine straight points for Gauff, to go from 4-1, 40-0 down to 4-3.
Spike Lee is loving it!
Sabalenka rapidly going off the boil here.
Up until this game, Gauff had committed more errors despite taking far less risk on her groundstrokes than Sabalenka is doing with her first-strike attack.
Gauff 3-4* Sabalenka
Sabalenka maybe a touch over-aggressive, 15-0 down, five straight points lost and now Sabalenka is the one chuntering away unhappily and glancing uncertainly to her box.
Oh, that's top. Long rally, covering the whole court, Gauff comes into the net and curls a looping parabola back over a helpless Sabalenka's head.
Gauff goes 40-0 up, then holds to love. Not long ago, Sabalenka looked irresistible, borderline unplayable. Not so now.
Gauff *2-4 Sabalenka
Early days, of course. But Sabalenka looks in fearsome form out there at the moment. Not sure anyone in the women's game could live with her.
Even her bad shots are coming off! A frankly awful drop shot, Gauff seizes on it desperately… and overcooks it. Now 40-0, and could this be her third game in six she wins to love?
No. Error, and then Gauff shows her the quality of drop shot Sabalenka should be aiming for. At 40-30, the red brick dust swirls around behind Sabalenka's head and she has to set up a serve several times.
Double fault for deuce! Sabalenka complains to her box but you can't do much about the weather, Aryna. Poor drop shot from Sabalenka, just becomes a setup for Gauff, who feints right and slaps it left for a winner. Break point…
And Sabalenka nets! Gauff with a shout of ‘Come on!’. Four points in a row from 40-0 down. Such minerals from the American.
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Gauff 1-4* Sabalenka
From deuce, a rollicking return at Gauff's toes and that's advantage back to her opponent.
Decent serve from Gauff… but in a French Open final, decent isn't good enough.
Sabalenka creams her return back past a static Gauff.
A sizzler of a forehand winner.
That was seven straight lost points on serve before Coco saved triple break point.
If she gets back to level in this set, those three saves will have been a big turning point.
Gauff 1-3* Sabalenka
Super setup from Sabalenka, who draws Gauff in with the drop shot, before settling into a strong foundation and pinging a rocket of a backhand passing shot down the line.
Sabalenka goes hard to Gauff's backhand side, and it's long. 0-30. Gauff gives a little nod to herself in acknowledgement. But that's not what she wanted!
Another miscue off a duff part of the racket and it's miles out. 0-40 and three more break points. Sabalenka long, unforced error, and the Belarusian grimaces.
Big serve down the T, return long, two saved! And a third as she maneuvers Sabalenka into the corner then swats away a volley, imbuing it with the annoyance and frustration of the match so far.
Cracking serve again, advantage… but she nets. Deuce.
We saw Sabalenka use her first-strike tennis to knock down Iga Świątek early in their semifinal.
Świątek responded in two ways: flattening out her own strikes to match Sabalenka's, and returning from a bit deeper to get into rallies, in which she could move Sabalenka all about the court.
Gauff's forehand grip, like Świątek's, is extreme enough that flattening out is a bit difficult, and she doesn't have the vicious, spinning power behind her ball that Świątek could use to rip the initiative away from Sabalenka in the second set of their match.
So Gauff needs to do what Świątek did: extend rallies, move Sabalenka, take away the first strike. Her groundstroke artillery just isn't as heavy. It's going to be tough.
The wind's picked up a little, and may have contributed to that complete mishit from Gauff to fall down 3-1.
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Gauff *1-3 Sabalenka
Not so good and then good from Gauff, who on the stretch can only volley a backhand at the net straight down, before ripping one beyond Sabalenka. Taste of her own medicine.
Now this is interesting. Sabalenka is tossing the ball pretty high for her serve and the ball is catching in the wind a bit, which she mentions to the umpire, before missing the first serve.
Again the second is good, and Gauff errs, 30-15. Gauff clearly trying to match the aggression and speed on Sabalenka's balls, and it works there as Sabalenka is rushed into netting for 30-all.
A near-unplayable serve at a potentially tricky part of the game. Ace. Gauff looks impassive. Ah, Gauff's eyes light up at a central forehand in the slot but she mishits it. 3-1.
Takeaway from three games… Sabalenka is trying to attack Gauff's strength, which is her running.
She's moving the ball around the court rather than trying to hit through it.
That should pay big dividends if she can keep Gauff from camping in the back to defend.
And there’s the first double fault for Coco, often her Achilles heel.
It gives Sabalenka an opening at 0-30, which she tuns into a break to love.
Eight straight points for Sabalenka, who crunched a pair of backhands to seal that break.
