A quest that had even this young talented athlete questioning herself. After her devastating lost in the 2022 French Open to Iga Swiatek, some people, including herself thought that she couldn’t win. Even with winning the 2023 US Open title, most tennis commentators were listing her as a one hit wonder. Coco was struggling with her forehand, coaches, and serves. She seem to be off. But coming into the 2025 clay season, she manage to bounce back. Getting into a good rhythm, she was able to to reach two finals. The Madrd Open she beat Iga in the semis but was defeated by number one player Aryna Sabalenka. The other tournament was the Italian Open where she lost to the home town favorite Jasmine Paolini. Even with these losses, Coco was feeling pretty good about her chances and redeeming herself at Rolland Garros.
So the French Open begins. Being shown on TNT sports was fascinating and historical with legendary Venus Williams and US Open winner Sloane Stephens as new analyst for the game. Its was a great moment seeing Venus, Slaone and Coco together at the podium talking. That interview gave the impression that Coco was going to do well. However, in some of her earlier matches, she seem to struggle with her serve double faulting at crucial points. Gauff is a fighter and she manage to get through those matches and make it to the finals.
Coco drew some celebrates from US to come support her. We saw film director Spikr Lee, actors Dustin Hoffman, Omar Sy and “Inside The NBA‘ host Ernie Johnson, just to name a few, were on deck. The place was packed and awaitng to see the number one and number two players go head to head. Scouting reports gave Sabalenka the edge because of the powerful serve she has. Would Coco be able to defend that power coming at her? The two players at their previous matches had played with the roof closed due to the rainy weather concoctions. But at the finals even though it was very windy, the tennis officials decided to open the roof. This made the game more interesting. In bad conditions, who would this favor?
Aryna started out banging with her serves, drop shots, and movement. Before you could blink, Coco was down 4 1 40 love. It looked as though Sabalenka was going to run away with this thing. But Coco was able to get it together and tie the first set at 4 4. They eventually went to a tie break. Coco had a chance to win but the double faults reared its ugly head and cost her the set.
Gauff rallied and won the next two sets ceiling the victory. Sabalenka just became unglued and was all out of sorts, Yelling at her team in the players box, She had a complete melt down, I believe she thought she had Coco beat when she was up 4 1 however, apparently she didn’t; learn her lesson from the last Grand Slam in which Coco came back and won. Paris fans enjoyed every minute of the spectacular plays that were on display. It was odd hearing them cheer for Coco considering she beat their home town favorite in the semi finals, Well despite the predictions, Coco won and beame the first American women to win singles since Serena Williams in 2915, ending a ten year drought. Coco Gauff is no one hit wonder but a two time Grand Slam champion with more to come…
Expressing my opinion
Chief Editor