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Paris – And then there were two. Coco Gauff and Aryna Sabalenka will battle for the Roland-Garros women’s singles title on Saturday in Paris. Let’s go inside the rivalry ahead of the pair’s 11th meeting.
Sabalenka vs Gauff
Head-to-Head: Tied 5-5 Clay: Tied 1-1
Top Dogs
The No.1 and No.2-ranked players will meet in the final at Roland-Garros for the first time since 2013, and the pair are also co-leaders on tour when it comes to clay-court victories in 2025, with each owning 17.
Who will get to 18, and the bragging rights that come with it?
Sabalenka and Gauff have split their two clay-court meetings, their two previous Grand Slam meetings and their ten overall meetings, so your guess is as good as ours.
Sabalenka did defeat Gauff in their most recent meeting, in the Madrid final, but it’s hard to say how much that will mean on Sunday, as the pair will now be playing on slower clay at see level, and likely beneath a roof, with rain in the forecast on Saturday.
Sabalenka looked comfortable against Iga Swiatek on Thursday as she ended the Pole’s 26-match Roland-Garros winning streak, but she’ll be up against a completely different player on Saturday. Gauff loves to dirty up matches and get players off their game, and she is the best at doing that with her world-class wheels and her penchant for turning matches into track meets rather than hitting contests.
Sabalenka, who is bidding for her fourth major title, will look to do the opposite. She wants to dictate with pace, execute her patterns, serve to pinpoints and let Gauff do the running.
She’ll look to capitalize on Gauff’s second serve, perhaps the most vulnerable shot on the court, but on the flipside she may have trouble holding her own serve. Gauff’s return game has been the best on the women’s side in Paris this year.
What’s at stake?
Gauff, who only turned 21 on March 13th, could become the youngest American to win the Women’s Singles title at Roland-Garros since three-time champion Serena Williams won her first title on the terre battue in 2002.
A triumph on Saturday would make Sabalenka the only active player to have won singles titles at three of the four Grand Slam events. The Belarusian would also move into a tie with Naomi Osaka for second on the active Grand Slam singles titles list with four.
What they’re saying
Sabalenka, on not celebrating her win against Swiatek too much: “It was a big match, and it felt like a final, but I know that the job is not done yet, and 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, especially if it's going to be Coco.
“I'm ready. I'm ready to go out, and I'm ready to fight. And I'm ready to do everything it's going to take to get the win.”
Gauff, on her approach to facing Sabalenka: “I think just trying to go for my shots and be aggressive. Obviously she's someone who has great big shots, and she's going to come out aggressive, she's going to come out swinging. I think I just have to expect that and do my best to kind of counter that.
“I think the past experience that I've played her, we had some up-and-down matches, we had some that I won straight sets and vice-versa Anything can happen on Saturday. But I'm looking forward to it, and glad to be going up against a World No. 1 too.”
Gauff, on losing her first Roland-Garros final in the locker room: “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.”