New Delhi: After just 19 minutes into the French Open women’s final at the Philippe-Chatrier court, with the score at 1-4, Coco Gauff was looking like she would be blown off the court by the power of Aryna Sabalenka.
For the first time in seven years, the best two women’s players in the world were meeting in a Grand Slam final but it was looking like a mismatch.
But it’s not about how you start, it’s how you finish.
The slow start gave way to an incredible resilience, grit and tennis smarts in a match that wasn’t high on quality but brutal from the physical and emotional point of view. It ended with the 21-year-old American winning a topsy-turvy roller coaster battle 6-7(5), 6-2, 6-4 in 2 hours and 38 minutes.
The signs were all there in the manner in which Gauff came back in the first set itself. After going down 1-4, she took the next three games and slowly revealed the tenacious style that would win her the second Major title of her career.
After letting Sabalenka’s big groundstrokes un-nerve her in the early going, Gauff, with the wind picking up, moved into defensive mode. Where one big shot was winning Sabalenka the point earlier, now even 3-4 big shots weren’t enough.
The world No.1 somehow managed to stay in the set and then unleashed four points of unbelievable quality to win the tiebreaker. It had shades of her semi-final against Iga Swiatek – where she had once again started the match well before being reeled in. The one big difference between the two matches was the windy conditions on Saturday.
The gusty wind blowing across the court seemed to rob Sabalenka of her all-important rhythm. She kept going for the big shots in the second set but it wasn’t the right tactic given the conditions. She seemed to be hitting one good shot and following it up with three poor ones.
And that is where Gauff displayed a maturity beyond her years. As the volatile Sabalenka self-detonated, it could have been so easy for the American to go for glory. But she quietly settled for the defensive game that has always been her strength. That decision allied with movement helped her win the second set in just 34 minutes.
So much about Sabalenka, though, is about how she feels at any particular moment. And on Saturday, she just wasn’t in the mood to dial things down even a tad bit. She kept going for the spectacular; kept making wrong shot selections but the success ratio was so low that in the end it just didn’t add up.
Gauff took the decider as Sabalenka went for another one and missed. It seemed an apt finish to a match that was perhaps defined by errors.
As many as 70 unforced errors (to 37 winners) flew from Sabalenka’s racquet. Gauff, by contrast, was a much more even 30 winners and unforced errors. The first serve percentage from both players (Gauff 63% and Sabalenka 59%) was poor and that resulted in Gauff earning 21 breakpoints while Sabalenka had 13.
When she was finally called to receive the runners-up trophy, Sabalenka started to cry and the crowd tried to cheer her up.
“Honestly guys, this one hurts so much,” said Sabalenka. “Especially after such a tough two weeks. Playing great tennis and then in these terrible conditions to show such terrible tennis in the final, it really hurts. But it’s ok. Anyway, Coco congrats. In these tough conditions, you were a better player than me. Well done on a great two weeks. Congrats on the second Slam. You’re a fighter. Hard worker. Congrats to you and your team.”
She summed up the final perfectly. The tough conditions demanded a resilience that very few players possess but Gauff seems to have been born with it. At no point did she waver or let her emotions betray her. She was dialled in and in complete control, and on a day when the wind was wreaking havoc, this calm was worth its weight in gold.
“I honestly didn’t think I could do it,” said Gauff during the trophy presentation, but it never seemed like the belief left her.
Two years after also defeating Sabalenka in three sets to win her first Major title at the 2023 US Open, she has become a multiple Grand Slam champion, and as she danced euphorically in the stands with her parents, Candi and Corey, after the win, one can be pretty sure this run won’t end here.