{"id":10818,"date":"2025-06-08T00:25:26","date_gmt":"2025-06-08T00:25:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/?p=10818"},"modified":"2025-06-08T00:25:28","modified_gmt":"2025-06-08T00:25:28","slug":"coco-gauff-wins-her-first-french-open-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/?p=10818","title":{"rendered":"Coco Gauff wins her first French Open title"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

PARIS — <\/span>Drawing on the painful memory of her defeat three years ago in the French Open<\/a> final gave Coco Gauff just the motivation she needed to win the clay-court major for the first time.<\/p>\n

The 21-year-old American defeated top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka 6-7 (5), 6-2, 6-4 on Saturday for her second Grand Slam title, two years after winning the U.S. Open<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think (the U.S. Open victory) was more emotional but this one was harder,\u201d said Gauff, who managed to handle the elements and the momentum swings better than Sabalenka<\/a>. “I knew it was going to be about will power and mental (strength).” <\/p>\n

The victory put to rest the bad memories of her 2022 French Open final loss to Iga Swiatek when, as an 18-year-old<\/a>, Gauff felt overwhelmed even before stepping onto Court Philippe-Chatrier.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a tough time, I was doubting myself,” Gauff recalled. \u201cI was crying before the match, and so nervous, literally couldn’t breathe and stuff.” <\/p>\n

Gauff said that the lopsided loss<\/a> rocked her confidence to such an extent that she was left \u201cin a dark place\u201d and feared she was not cut out for winning major titles.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought if I can’t handle this how am I going to handle it again?\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She handled it just fine on Saturday. <\/p>\n

The second-ranked Gauff<\/a> made fewer mistakes and kept her emotions in check to get the better of Sabalenka again at major final, having come from a set down to beat the Belarusian in the 2023 U.S. Open<\/a> final.<\/p>\n

Gauff raised the winners’ trophy aloft, then kissed it several times. She held her hand over her heart when the U.S. national anthem played. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis one is heavy,” Gauff said. \u201cIt feels great to lift it.\u201d<\/p>\n

She is the first American woman to win at Roland-Garros since Serena Williams in 2015.<\/p>\n

It was the first No. 1 vs. No. 2 final in Paris since 2013, when Williams defeated Maria Sharapova, and just the second in the last 30 years.<\/p>\n

After Sabalenka sent a backhand wide on Gauff’s second match point, the 21-year-old American fell onto her back, covering her face with both hands as she started to sob, then got up and held her hand over her mouth. She continued to sob as she patted the clay with her left hand.<\/p>\n

Gauff greeted Sabalenka at the net with a warm hug and thanking the umpire, Gauff screamed out with joy and relief, then got to her knees and crouched forward, continuing to cry as she savored the win. <\/p>\n

She hugged later film director Spike Lee and celebrated with her entourage in her box before thanking the fans.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou guys were cheering for me so hard,” she said. “I don\u2019t know what I did to deserve so much love from the French crowd.\u201d<\/p>\n

One thing Gauff could not manage \u2014 yet \u2014 was a victory speech in French. <\/p>\n

\u201cI completely tanked on that,” she said, adding that she will try in the future. \u201cI don\u2019t think I could do a whole speech but maybe a good something to say to the French crowd.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sabalenka praised Gauff for being a \u201cfighter\u201d and said she deserved the win, but added that the windy conditions made for an error-strewn contest.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis will hurt so much,” Sabalenka said. “Coco, congrats, in the tough conditions you were a better player than me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both players were sloppy in the first set, conceding 21 break-point chances and making 48 unforced errors between them, with Sabalenka making 32 yet still winning the set. She made 70 altogether in the match, compared to 30 overall for Gauff.<\/p>\n

Sabalenka was often frustrated, remonstrating and shouting at herself and frequently turning around to look at her team with an exasperated look on her face. She put her head on her hands a couple of times, and at one point raised her shoulders as if to say \u201cWhat\u2019s going on?\u201d <\/p>\n

Gauff said she paid no attention, knowing full well that Sabalenka could find her best game at any moment.<\/p>\n

The first set looked to be heading Gauff\u2019s way when she led 3-0 in the tiebreaker, but Sabalenka steadied herself and clinched it with a forehand volley at the net.<\/p>\n

Gauff leveled the match with a smash at the net. But Sabalenka stuck to her high-risk approach in the deciding set.<\/p>\n

One superb rally in the third game drew loud cheers. <\/p>\n

After an intense exchange of drop shots, Gauff hit a lob that Sabalenka chased down before attempting a shot between her legs \u2014 only for Gauff to intercept it at the net.<\/p>\n

It was a rare highlight on a day when swirling wind troubled both players with the roof open.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was tough to plant your feet, the ball was moving so much,” Gauff said. \u201cIt was not a day for great tennis, honestly.”<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP tennis: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/tennis<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PARIS — Drawing on the painful memory of her defeat three years ago in the French Open final gave Coco Gauff just the motivation she needed to win the clay-court major for the first time. The 21-year-old American defeated top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka 6-7 (5), 6-2, 6-4 on Saturday for her second Grand Slam title, two […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10819,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10818","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10818"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10818\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10820,"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10818\/revisions\/10820"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}