A look at looming milestones ahead of Saturday’s women’s final in Paris
©Corinne Dubreuil / FFTThe 58th Open era staging of Roland-Garros will produce a first-time winner on the women’s side. It’s all down to Aryna Sabalenka and Coco Gauff, the tournament’s top two seeds, on Saturday. As the pair prepare to contest a final for the ages, we break down some of the critical statistical storylines to look out for.
By completing her victory over four-time champion Swiatek in the semi-finals, Sabalenka has taken the lead among her active peers in total Grand Slam finals reached. The world No.1 is into her sixth major final – remarkably she has reached them all in a span of ten majors, between January 2023 and today. Sabalenka has won three of her previous five major finals, but has lost her only head-to-head battle with Gauff in a Slam final, at the 2023 US Open.
Gauff is making her third Grand Slam final appearance, and second at Roland-Garros. She lost to Iga Swiatek in the 2022 final in Paris.
Sabalenka and Gauff will meet for the eleventh time, and for the third time in a final. In addition to their 2023 US Open final, the pair met in this year’s Madrid final, with Sabalenka pulling off a 6-3, 7-6(3) victory.
Gauff and Sabalenka have split their two meetings at the majors, with Sabalenka defeating Gauff in the 2024 Australian Open semi-final, and they have split their ten lifetime meetings, including the two on clay (Gauff beat Sabalenka in the round of 16 at Rome in 2021).
Can you say too close to call?
©Cedric Lecocq / FFTSaturday’s clash marks the first Roland-Garros final between the tour’s top two-ranked players since 2013, when world No.1 Serena Williams defeated No.2 Maria Sharapova.
It’s only the fifth time in 35 years, since 1990, that the top two seeds will face each other in the women’s singles final in Court Philippe-Chatrier, after Steffi Graf and Monica Seles (1990 and 1992), Arantxa Sanchez Vicario and Steffi Graf (1995) and Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova (2013).
The WTA’s No.1 and No.2-ranked players have not met in a Grand Slam final since Caroline Wozniacki defeated Simona Halep in the 2018 Australian Open final.
©Corinne Dubreuil / FFTVictory on Saturday would make Sabalenka the only active player to have won singles titles at three of the four Grand Slam events. She would also move into a tie with Naomi Osaka for second on the active Grand Slam singles titles list with four.
Gauff, who only turned 21 on March 13th of this year, 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.
Florida native Gauff is also the youngest player since the Madrid Open’s inception in 2009 to reach the finals in Madrid, Rome and at Roland-Garros in a single calendar year.
No player has been more effective at the Grand Slams over the last two and a half years. Sabalenka has gone 53-5 at the majors since the start of 2023, winning three titles and reaching at least the semi-final in eight.
She’s played the final in six of those ten majors and will bid for her fourth title from those ten appearances on Saturday.
Sabalenka is the third woman this century to reach multiple Grand Slam singles finals in three or more consecutive years, joining Venus Williams (2000-2003) and Serena Williams (2008-2010).
ROLAND-GARROS
19 May - 8 June 2025
©Corinne Dubreuil / FFT