Bill Simons
PARIS
As an Aryna Sabalenka cross-court backhand blast went wide, Coco Gauff fell to the orange clay in triumph, a 6-7(5), 6-2, 6-4 winner. On the court where Billie Jean, Chrissie, Martina, Steffi and Serena had prevailed, she was now the champion of France. Her chest heaved – she sobbed. A red, white and blue flag flared from the upper tier of this grand Paris arena.
Soon, the swift athletic genius lifted the silver Suazanne Lenglen trophy in triumph and kissed it with glee. And, while her land was rife with divisions and sorrow, a young beaming athlete gave her nation a moment of uplift.
As the Star Spangled Banner sounded, we recalled her greatness.
Coco dashes, Coco blasts, Coco defends. Yes, she hits too many miserable double faults. At times her forehand has a hitch and takes a vacation. Rarely are things certain with this athlete. She tears out our hearts.
So what? She’s probably the most savvy 21-year old in sports these days. Her fighting spirit is a deep well that she taps into often. Never underestimate her – no matter how many baffling errors or dreary deficits. As a 15-year-old, she shocked a proud icon – Venus Williams. She rose to No. 1 in doubles and she took the 2023 US Open.
But there were painful moments. In New York, Naomi Osaka comforted her courtside: don’t weep, child. In her first Paris final, she fizzled like a week-old Perrier – she had no fizz. Tennis humiliates – the stage is lonely. She muffed her lines and wrestled with many a “dark thought.”
But Gauff, who seems to have been around for eons, is nothing if not resilient. When Madison Keys first spotted her as a nine-year-old, she thought, “That kid is poised.”
She’s wise beyond her years. Frances Tiafoe lovingly dubbed her Little Miss Mature. Her parents have to remind her that there’s more to life than tennis.
When racial strife broke out, this granddaughter of a civil rights pioneer spoke with eloquence. She’s come forward on other fronts, too – education and compassion matter to her.
These days, we know she’s rich – the wealthiest sportswoman in the world, and the WTA’s most charismatic player, who charms us and shares her bubbly love of fashion. More to the point, Coco fashions victories. She downed her older Floridian sister of sorts, Madison, in three sets in the quarterfinals. She snuffed out the dreams of a French Cinderella, Lois Boisson, in the semis.
But today, Coco faced the mightiest player in the world. Aryna Sabalenka has three Slam trophies on her mantle. She thrashed the Queen of Clay in the semis, bageling Iga Swiatek in the final set to snap the Pole’s 26-match French Open winning streak.
But critics bristled: “Aryna, you’ve never won on a natural surface at Wimbledon or Roland Garros. You don’t have the craftsmanship or finesse to be a clay master.”
But Sabalenka seemed to shout, “You’re wrong!” Full of belief, she sprinted out of the starting gate.
This woman does know how to deal with adversity. She was told by her childhood coaches that she was too stupid to be a pro. She lost her dad when he was just 43. The Belarusian was once linked to her country’s war-happy dictator. She overcame a wretched loss of confidence on her serve, and last year endured the suicide of her former boyfriend.
In today’s final, under steel gray skies, Aryna started fast. Hitting deep, blasting groundies to the lines, anticipating well, creating angles, offering drop shots and displaying variety, she took it to Coco, winning 12 of 13 points to grab a lopsided, walk-in-the-park 4-1, 40-0 lead.
Her message was clear: “Power rules. This is my day, my match. I am No. 1, you’re merely No. 2.” She pounded Gauff’s second serve.
Coco had begun this year’s French Open by forgetting to bring her rackets to her first match. Today, at first, it seemed that she’d forgotten her game in the locker room. The rout was on.
But not for long.
The blustery winds were unkind to Sabalenka. She double faulted twice and hit dreary dropshots. Coco pounced. She hit deep and broke. The fearless fighter picked up her serve and bravely rushed the net as she flipped a script that drew us in with its countless twists. She charged back to even the score at 4-4. A titanic battle began to bubble up.
Aryna’s lean-in forehand is a thunderous bolt. She attacks. But Gauff’s anticipation, her grit, and her explosive, best-in-the-WTA athleticism baffled her foe.
In a fierce 13-minute game, Aryna faltered on three set points. Errors cascaded, and Sabalenka’s forehand flew. On her fifth break point, Gauff broke to even the set 5-5.
But then Coco double faulted twice, Aryna hit sweet drop shots and broke again, waving to the crowd, “That’s more like it.” But Gauff hit a stunning backhand winner off an Aryna overhead to force a first-set tiebreak.
In the first tiebreak in the opening set of a Roland Garros final since 1998, Gauff roared to a 4-1 lead. But now it was Aryna’s turn to come back, as she won six of seven points to prevail 7-5.
Only twice in the last 23 Roland Garros finals has a woman come back to win after losing the first set. Then again, Gauff did just that to win the 2023 US Open against Sabalenka.
Now Coco barely blinked, but, amidst the gusts, Aryna struggled. Her serve was problematic. She would suffer a mind-boggling 70 unforced errors. Coco broke three times. In a flash, she grabbed the momentum and won the second set 6-2.
Frustrated and at a loss, Aryna’s movement was modest, and her emotions unraveled. Staring at her box, pounding a ball into the court, cursing her fate, her calm vanished. “She’s never going to not express herself!” quipped Eleanor Preston.
An eerie darkness descended, but Coco was bright. Flooded with belief, blasting winners, moving like a breeze, she broke early in the third set and boldly gained a 5-3 lead. Aryna had a last moment of glory. When down championship point, she blasted a return that caught the baseline.
But Coco soon scored a heart-pounding, 6-7 (5), 6-2, 6-4 victory to become the first American since Serena in 2015 to win Roland Garros, and the youngest US player to claim the title since Serena in 2002.
Aryna would later complain of the wind and say, “It was…the worst tennis I’ve played in the last, I don’t know…It was the worst final I’ve ever played.”
She added, “Sometimes it felt like she was hitting the ball from the frame. Somehow, magically, the ball lands in the court…It felt like a joke, honestly, like somebody from above was just staying there laughing, like, ‘Let’s see if you can handle this.’ And I couldn’t.”
Coco also thought of a wretched final she’d played. Recalling her loss to Iga Swiatek in the 2022 French Open final, she said, “I was doubting myself…I was crying before the match and was so nervous, and literally couldn’t breathe.
“I vividly remember watching Iga get emotional during the Polish anthem. I was, like, ‘Wow, this is such a cool moment.’ So today when the anthem played, I had those reflections.”
Gauff teared up, and when asked what it was like to travel the world as an American, she replied, “It means a lot. Obviously there’s a lot going on in our country right now…But just to be able to be a representation of people that look like me and support the things I support and …[who] maybe don’t feel as supported during this time…So [it’s important] just being that reflection of hope and light.”
Today, on a dark Paris day, she certainly was.
