Key events
Here’s that 2023 meeting between the pair.
Gauff’s opponent is the same player she beat at Flushing Meadows in 2023 to win her first Slam, Sabalenka. What’s she thinking?
I have to go out there on Saturday and I have to fight and I have to bring my best tennis, and I have to work for that title. Yeah, I’m ready. I’m ready to go out and I’m ready to fight. I’m ready to do everything it’s going to take to get the win.
How was Coco Gauff feeling on the eve of the final? Memories of 2022.
My first final here I was super nervous, and I kind of wrote myself off before the match even happened. Obviously here I have a lot more confidence just from playing a grand slam final before and doing well in one.
I think going into Saturday I’ll just give it my best shot and try to be as calm and relaxed as possible. Whatever happens, happens. I think just realising how minuscule it is, everybody is dealing with way bigger things in life than losing a final. And realising however many players wanted to be in this position.
“I’m sure there are hundreds of players who would kill to win or lose a final, so just knowing that makes me realise how lucky and privileged I am to be in this position. At first I thought it would be the end of the world if I lost, but you know, the sun still rose the next day. So knowing, regardless of the result, the sun will still rise.
Especially being in a city like Paris, I was walking around the next day, and no one knew that I lost, and no one cared. I was just realising that how big the moment seems in our lives is not as big in the grand scheme of things.
How did they get here?
Gauff beat home darling Boisson
Sabalenka torched the previous queen of these clay courts.
Tumaini Carayol is our man in Paris, and here’s his preview of the women’s final.
This tournament places Gauff at an interesting intersection. She has already enjoyed her first breakthrough, winning her first major title at the 2023 US Open and then backing it up by triumphing at the WTA Finals in Riyadh last year. At a time when two players – Sabalenka and Swiatek – have distanced themselves from the field by consistently racking up big titles on the biggest stages, the next question for Gauff is whether she is ready and capable of taking another leap forward and consistently competing for every grand slam.
Preamble
The stage is set for the big-hitters in a year where the Roland Garros courts seem to have served such players well. Coco Gauff seeks her second Grand Slam on the scene of her 2022 defeat to Iga Świątek. Aryna Sabalenka seeks her fourth Grand Slam in her first ever final in Paris. A new name will be written on the trophy by the end of the affair. It’s the world No 1 taking on America’s No 1, and world No 2. In short, the two best players in the game at the moment.
We begin at 2pm UK time, 3pm Paris time, 7pm ET, 4pm Belarus time. Join me.
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