Key events
Righto, we’re good to go; Gauff to serve.
We’ve been talking about psychological axioms but allow me ignore the one that says we should live in the moment: imagine the atmosphere on Chatrier a couple of hours for now, when Boisson and Andreeva come out Oooh yeah!
The roof is closed. That will, I think, help Keys, whose big shots benefit from the certainty of stillness – she can whack it without worrying about wind and so on. Gauff, though, has plenty of her own power, and if she can hide her forehand is favourite.
Preamble
Salut à tout le monde et bienvenue à Roland-Garros 2025 – 11ème jour!
And what a start awaits us. Madison Keys is the Australian Open champion – gratuitous, but I’ll never tire of typing that – finally realising the talent it was impossible to deny. Technically speaking, little has changed, but mentally she’s a different person, making peace with the career she’s had in order to grow into the player she now is. Or, put another way, she’s a lesson in the value of psychological axioms: self-worth comes from within, not without; we are defined by what is in our head and our hearts, not according to our professional accomplishments.
But this morning, she faces an opponent able to examine both her game and her equilibrium. Coco Gauff is a grand slam champion in her own right, a phenomenal athlete who’ll ask her to hit a lot of balls – a test as mental as it is technical and facilitated by a damp, cold day. Though it’s easy to plot a path to victory for both players, it’s far harder to decide which of them will be celebrating at the end.
Following them on to court, we’ve Mirra Andreeva, a talent so natural she might’ve been playing in the womb. But Lois Boisson is in ridiculous form, in the process of announcing herself to the tennis world; she absolutely believes and, as Maddy could tell you, that’s a large chunk of the battle.
And finally for the day session, we’ve Jannik Sinner, the best player in the world, against Sascha Bublik, a mercurial maverick who might finally have reconciled his power and hands with what it takes to succeed as a professional. We think we know who’ll win, but then we thought the same when he was two sets down to Alex de Minaur, just as we did before he met Jack Draper in the last round. If he’s got another performance left in him, we’re in for a treat.
On y va!
Play: 11asm local, 10am BST
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