Boulter and Fearnley earn maiden French Open wins

French Open 2025

Location: Roland Garros, May 25 – June

After Jacob Fearnley defeated former champion Stan Wawrinka in his first main-draw match, British star Katie Boulter, 28, finally won the French Open championship at age 28.

Boulter, who is ranked 38th in the world, triumphed over Carole Monnet, who is ranked 231 in the world, 6-1, 6-1, 6-1.

Boulter, who could face Madison Keys, the reigning Australian Open champion, said, “I’m really pleased with myself.”

“I occasionally find this surface to be very challenging, but I’ve persevered and made an effort to make this surface as good as possible.”

This one will go in my books because it is special to me.

In addition to winning in front of a partisan opposition crowd, 55th-ranked Fearnley advanced to a 7-6 (8-6) 6-3 6-2 victory over the well-known 40-year-old Wawrinka.

Emma Raducanu, who had earlier fought through “feeling sick,” to defeat China’s Wang Xinyu in the second round, joined the pair.

On day two of the clay-court Grand Slam competition, Jodie Burrage was unable to finish a British clean sweep.

Fearnley had the advantage of youthful vitality, if not clay-court experience, over the three-time major winner when Switzerland’s Wawrinka made his French Open debut in 2005.

Ten years ago, Wawrinka defeated Novak Djokovic to win the title in Paris, but she has since fallen to 138th in the world rankings.

Fearnley, however, has never before this year competed on clay for the ATP Tour.

The Edinburgh-born 23-year-old has quickly moved up to a career high of 55 from where she was previously ranked outside of the top 500 just 12 months ago.

Fearnley broke early in the second and jumped out to a 4-1 lead before serving the set to love after clinching the opening set via a tie-break.

Wawrinka, who beat Andy Murray in the first set last year, fought back in the third set to keep the score at 2-2, much to the delight of the court’s audience.

Fearnley quickly restored his lead and won four straight games to seal the victory for them, but their joy was brief.

Fearnley remarked, “There were a lot of guys talking to me when I was able to get past the pro-Wawrinka crowd.” The majority of it was French. I don’t know if they were saying nice things.

Fearnley has already triumphed at Roland Garros, Wimbledon, and the Australian Open, three Grand Slams in a row, as well as his main draw debut.