Coco Gauff Faces Huge Final Challenge to Down Aryna Sabalenka
Roland Garros
June 6, 2025
Coco Gauff is a great fighter and stubborn defender in any gladiatorial tennis arena.
She will need those qualities to cope with the ferocity of this Aryna, though – Sabalenka in the French Open final on Saturday.
Coco Gauff versus Aryna Sabalenka would be a fitting final on Centre Court at Wimbledon 2025 too. Neither woman has taken the biggest title of them all on grass.
But for now the forthcoming battle on clay is commanding our focus in Paris – where Coco and Aryna are also yet to triumph on finals day.
Coco has just found some form to end the fairy-tale of Lois Boisson, the Dijon-born outsider with all the Roland Garros support behind her.
The American showed no sympathy for the romance of the story unfolding around the previously unknown Lois – and simply ended it abruptly with her 6-1, 6-2 super show.
But Gauff will have to raise her levels further still if she is to prevail against the awesome Sabalenka.
Aryna didn’t make a single unforced error during her devastating final set against Iga Swiatek.
And remember, the Pole was on an incredible 26-match unbeaten run at the French Open, a record stretching back to 2021.
Swiatek had been fierce with her stroke play during the first two keenly contested sets. Many thought she would go on to extend that winning run once she drew level.
But Sabalenka turned on the after-burners and left Iga for dead with a blend of fearless hitting and uncanny accuracy.
Aryna’s 7-6 (7-1), 4-6, 6-0 victory will give Gauff’s camp plenty of food for thought – particularly that brutal bagel.
But Coco has beaten Sabalenka in a Grand Slam final before – to win the US Open in 2023. And she won’t let the occasion get to her like it did in 2022, when she lost to Swiatek.
Coco explained: ‘My first final here, I was super nervous and wrote myself off before the match even happened. Now I’ve won a Grand Slam, so I’m much more confident.’
Sabalenka will still start favourite. But it promises to be an explosive final.
Coco Gauff and Aryna Sabalenka will then turn their attention to the most historic tournament on the calendar – Wimbledon 2025.
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