Gauff and Sabalenka face off in French Open final

French Open 2025 final for women’s singles

Venue: Roland Garros Time: 14: 00 BST Dates: 25 May-8 June

Aryna Sabalenka and Coco Gauff will square off against one another in the French Open for the first time in seven years in a Grand Slam final.

Both Sabalenka and Gauff will be reigning women’s singles champions, with Gauff and Sabalenka competing for second place in the major singles rankings.

Gauff, the 2023 US Open champion, finished in second place three years ago, while Sabalenka, a two-time Australian Open champion, will face her in his first Roland Garros final.

In their respective semi-finals, Sabalenka and Gauff fought through two very different difficulties.

Sabalenka, the title favorite, put an impressive three-set win on Iga Swiatek, who had previously defeated her in 26 matches, further cementing her position as title favorite.

Gauff, in contrast, was up against partisans and successfully completed French wildcard Lois Boisson’s fairytale run in straight sets.

With this third major singles final in a row, Sabalenka shows remarkable consistency at the highest level of the sport.

The 27-year-old is the first woman to do so since Serena Williams nine years ago.

Sabalenka leads the WTA Tour with 40 victories in 46 matches, having won seven finals in 10 competitions this year.

Gauff, in contrast, is still a force to reckon with on clay.

The 21-year-old is the youngest woman to reach the finals of Madrid, Rome, and the French Open in the same year while competing for her first title of the season.

In terms of overall head-to-head performance, there is nothing to break between Gauff and Sabalenka.

They each won one major championship, with Sabalenka winning the 2023 US Open final over Gauff, who followed Sabalenka winning the 2024 semi-final against Sabalenka.

Both women have won on clay, with Sabalenka winning the most recent meeting in the Madrid final against Gauff in 2021 while Sabalenka won the Italian Open fourth round.

Given that she has won three of their previous four meetings, Sabalenka might have a slight advantage in Paris.

Sabalenka has always been viewed as a hard-court specialist despite having won all three of her major singles titles on that front.

But she constantly changes her approach. She stifled the clay-court expert’s game with devastating accuracy and kept the key points under control.

When asked how winning the French Open would feel, Sabalenka responded, “It will mean a lot to my team and I.”

I’ve been told [clay] is not my thing almost my entire life, and I didn’t have any confidence at the time.

Gauff is aware of Sabalenka’s expectations, but overcoming them is a different issue.

To withstand Sabalenka’s strength and to entice her into longer rallies, she will need to be at her best defensively.

To maintain pressure on Sabalenka and to provide a platform for developing opportunities based on her tournament-leading tally of converted break points (40), it will be crucial to keep her serve and keep double faults to a minimum.

Gauff predicted that “she’s going to come out swinging and aggressive.”

“I believe I just have to anticipate that and try my best to at least partially counteract that,” she said.

On Saturday, “everything can happen.” I’m anticipating it, and I’m pleased to compete with a world number one as well.