… Sabalenka laments Paris loss, says ‘Worst final I ever played’
Coco Gauff won the first French Open singles title of her career by fighting back to beat world number one Aryna Sabalenka in the final on Saturday.
American second seed Gauff claimed a 6-7 (5-7) 6-2 6-4 victory after a tense battle between the WTA Tour’s two leading players in testing conditions.
It is the second Grand Slam singles triumph of Gauff’s career, adding to her US Open title won in 2023, also by beating Belarus’ Sabalenka.
“I honestly didn’t think I could do it,” Gauff, 21, said during the trophy presentation.
Read also: Coco Gauff defeats Sabalenka to win French Open title
Gauff recovered from a difficult start where she trailed by a double break, eventually finding her rhythm and benefiting from a huge number of mistakes from 27-year-old Sabalenka.
“This hurts so much. Congratulations to Coco – she was a better player than me,” said Sabalenka, who was also bidding for her first Roland Garros title.
Aryna Sabalenka cries during her on-court speech after her French Open final defeat, revealing it was her worst final ever. “It hurt to show such terrible tennis.”
World number one Sabalenka, bidding for a fourth major singles title, put in a frustrated and error-strewn performance in a 6-7 (5-7) 6-2 6-4 defeat to the American.
Sabalenka committed 70 unforced errors – the highest in any women’s singles main-draw match at this year’s Roland Garros.
The Belarusian has lost successive Grand Slam finals, having been beaten in three sets by Madison Keys in the Australian Open showpiece in January.
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After collecting her runners-up prize, Sabalenka fought back tears and apologised to her team for “playing a terrible final”.
Like in her semi-final win over defending champion Swiatek, Sabalenka started aggressively and confidently to move a double break ahead.
She was a point away from a 5-1 lead, but her dominance quickly disappeared as Gauff fought back.
Despite recovering from 5-3 down in the tie-break, Sabalenka continued to be animated and regularly chastised herself.
It meant she was unable to stem the flow of mistakes from her racquet, with a huge total of 70 unforced errors illustrating her difficulties.
