Sabalenka and Gauff to Compete for Roland Garros Title

There will be a new champion at Roland Garros. Aryna Sabalenka or Coco Gauff will be crowned champions of the Paris tournament for the first time in their careers this Friday. The Belarusian, world number one, who had always struggled to reach the Roland Garros final, earned her place to fight for the title by defeating the favourite, Iga Swiatek, 7-6 (1), 4-6, 6-0.

Sabalenka, a perennial contender here, achieved one of the most significant victories of her career against Swiatek, who was clinging to Paris as her last chance to turn around a concerning 2025. She hasn't won any titles, in fact, she hasn't lifted a trophy since Roland Garros 2024, and she missed the opportunity to win her fourth consecutive title here. The Pole hadn't lost in this tournament since 2021, when she fell in the quarter-finals to Maria Sakkari.

The Belarusian, who had never faced Swiatek on these courts, had her moments of doubt, surrendering a 4-1 lead and facing a 5-1 ball in the first set - which she eventually won in the tiebreak - and when Swiatek threatened a comeback in the second set. But the Pole, running out of steam, collapsed in the third, where she suffered a 'bagel', her second in this clay court season after the one she received in Madrid against Madison Keys.

This result drops her to seventh place in the WTA rankings, her worst since 2021. Sabalenka, on the other hand, could lift her fourth Grand Slam this Saturday, following her victories in Australia 2023 and 2024 and the US Open 2024, leaving her just a Wimbledon title away, where her best is the semi-finals, from completing the 'Career Grand Slam'.

The world's best player, who would have a lead of nearly 5,000 points at the top if she wins, will face Gauff, who ended Lois Boisson's dream run. The Frenchwoman, the tournament's Cinderella after defeating Jessica Pegula and Mirra Andreeva and reaching the semi-finals despite being ranked 361, succumbed to Gauff, who will play her second Roland Garros final after losing to Swiatek in 2023. For Boisson, it has been a spectacular result, firstly for overcoming a severe knee injury that kept her off the circuit for a year, and secondly because she will break into the world's top 70 thanks to these semi-finals, which will also earn her 690,000 euros.

Gauff will compete this Saturday for her second Grand Slam, following her US Open victory in 2023, and to become the third American to triumph in Paris in the 21st century, after Jennifer Capriati (2021) and Serena Williams (2002, 2013, and 2015).