Sunday, June 8, 2025

My French Open top 10

Here are my top 10 French Open occurences, in ascending order:

10. The less things change, the more they stay the same: Tournament director Amelie Mauresmo tried to explain why no women are scheduled for night matches, and to assure everyone concerned that the tournament isn't really delivering the message that so many people are getting. Time, she said, is a factor--the matches need to go for a long time. And while it's true that women play the best of three and men play the best of five--two back-to-back women's matches would solve that problem. Also, many men's matches last only three sets. Ons Jabeur responded, and when she did, others followed her. 

9. Gone so soon: Emma Navarro, Beatriz Haddad Maia, Elise Mertens, 2021 champion Barbora Krejcikova, Karolina Muchova, Marta Kostyuk--they were all defeated in the first round. Krejcikova and Muchova were both coming back from injury/illness, so those exits--though very sad--weren't surprising. In the second round, we lost Danielle Collins, Donna Vekic and Diana Shnaider. 

8. With a Fighting Italian behind you, you can do anything: Lilli Tagger became the first Austrian to win the junior girls' title, and she did it without dropping a set. Tagger's coach? 2010 champion Francesca Schiavone, of course. 

7. Mixing and matching in Paris: Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori won the mixed doubles championship, and are the first Italian team to do so in 67 years. Errani and Vavassori also won the U.S. Open title in 2024.

6. Kamiji rolls on: Yui Kamiji, the top seed in Paris, won both the wheelchair singles and doubles (with Kgothatso Montjane) titles. Kamiji, for several years, has played the "second best" role to Diede de Groot. De Groot, whose 125 match win streak was broken last year at World Team Cup play, had to undergo surgery and rehab for her hip, and has returned to the tour, but is clearly not yet back to her former level. Kamiji's "second best" is quite impressive, though. This is her fifth French Open singles title, and her fifth French Open doubles title. She has a total of ten major singles titles, and she has achieved a Career Slam in doubles.

5. When the Fight goes out of the Italian: Jasmine Paolini, seeded 4th, stunned the tennis world last year when she reached the finals of both the French Open and Wimbledon. Just before she arrived in Paris, Paolini won both the singles and doubles titles in Rome, and then made it through the first three rounds at Roland Garros without dropping a set.

Then something happened: In the round of 16, Paolini played Elina Svitolina, who is always a threat, to be sure. But Paolini took the first set 6-4, then went up 4-1 in the second. She then went up 5-3. At 5-4, she held two match points. Svitolina saved those, then forced a tiebreak, which Paolini led 6-5, thereby holding a third match point. But Svitolina saved that one, too, and went on to win the match. This is to take nothing away from Elina Svitolina, who played at top form and had nerves of steel; she may have won under any circumstance. But Paolini was clearly rattled. Was she exhausted from Rome? Was Svitolina just too much for her? Was it just a bad day? Or all of those things? Only Paolini knows. 

4. The crown is off--for now: Three-time defending champion (and four-time champion) Iga Swiatek, whose name has become synonymous with Roland Garros, wasn't exactly a favorite this year. After all, she hadn't won a title since she won the French Open last year. But she made it past both Elena Rybakina and Elina Svitolina, and she owned a 5-1 record on clay against her semifinal opponent, Aryna Sabalenka. The world number 1, however, defeated Swiatek 7-6(1), 4-6, 6-0, then went on, of course, to reach her first French Open final. 

3. They love Paris every moment: Despite her tense round of 16 loss in singles, Jasmine Paolini wasn't out of the tournament. She and partner Sara Errani, seeded 2nd, won the doubles championship. Errani and Paolini, the 2024 runners-up, also won an Olympic gold medal at Roland Garros last year.

2. Lois! Lois! Lois!: Until last week, only serious fans had heard of Lois Boisson. That all changed when the 22-year-old Frenchwoman, ranked number 361 in the world and holding a wild card, went on an upset tear, the likes of which we haven't seen in a while. Boisson, who serves well, and is a clever competitor and a cool head on the court, went about showing the exit to 24th seed Elise Mertens, Anhelina Kalinina, wild card Elsa Jacquemont, 3rd seed Jessica Pegula, and 6th seed Mirra Andreeva. She was stopped by Coco Gauff in the semifinals, but her run was unforgettable. The French crowd, yelling "Lois! Lois! Lois!," went crazy (which also meant that they were brutal toward her opponents), and now everyone knows her name. Next week, she'll be ranked number 65 in the world.

1. First the Coco, then the champagne: In 2022, an 18-year-old Coco Gauff made it to the final of the French Open, but was defeated in straight sets by Iga Swiatek. Gauff later said that she approached the final without much self-belief, and that she continued to feel bad about her performance. Gauff reached the quarterfinals in 2023 and the semifinals in 2024. In the meantime, she won the U.S. Open in 2023. The Coco Gauff who arrived in Paris this year was ready to take on anybody. Her draw became tougher by the time she reached the round of 16, but she would go on to defeat 30the seed Ekaterina Alexandrova, 7th seed Madison Keys, and the very in-form Frenchwoman, Lois Boisson. In the final, she faced world number 1, Aryna Sabalenka, and--after losing a tense first set in a tiebreak--Gauff went on to win the next two sets, 6-2 and 6-4. 

Coco Gauff has had her ups and downs, like all good players, but she has worked steadily to improve her game, and her mindset is now the mindset of a champion, a reality that was on display throughout the final. 

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Saturday, June 7, 2025

Coco takes Paris--21st Century version

It doesn't happen often that the two top seeds in a major compete in the final, but it did today. Top seed and world number 1 Aryna Sabalenka faced 2nd seed (and 2022 runner-up) Coco Gauff for the title. The wind was strong, with gusts up to 30 mph., and the roof was open. It also rained for a while, but not enough to pause the match.

Wind is probably the last thing that players want to deal with in a big match, and some handle it better than others. Today, it was Gauff who did a better job of managing the elements--and the emotions. It isn't my (or anyone's) place to judge who had what emotions and how intense they were, but Gauff had let it be known that her error-filled, straight-set loss to Iga Swiatek in 2022 (Swiatek also beat her in last year's semifinals) had stayed with her. Gauff was only 18 then, and the subsequent three years have made a difference. Not only is she a better player and more sure of herself--she also came to Paris as a player who had already won a major (the 2023 U.S. Open). 

The first set of today's final included eight breaks of serve as the players struggled to deal with the wind. Sabalenka went up 40, 40-love rather quickly, but Gauff maneuvered her way back. The tenth game contained six deuces, and Gauff won it on her fifth break point. Sabalenka served twice for the set but was unable to close. The set, not surprisingly, went to a tiebreak, which Gauff led--until she didn't. Sabalenka committed 32 unforced errors in the set, yet managed to win the tiebreak, 7-5.

Gauff began the second set with a break, and then held at love. She then went up a double break, while her opponent began to resemble the Aryna Sabalenka of former years. The world number 1 became flustered by both the wind and by Gauff's smooth running down of balls and steadier hitting. The 2nd seed won that set 6-2.

Gauff finessed her way through the third set without making a single unforced error. She served for it at 5-4, and Sabalenka saved that championship point. but a few moments later, the match was over, and Gauff walked away with a  6-7, 6-2, 6-4 victory. 

Sabalenka made 70 unforced errors in the match, and hit 37 winners; Gauff made 30 unforced errors and hit 30 winners. Gauff's expert footwork and mental strength were on full display throughout the match.

We have other champions, too. Top seed Yui Kamiji won the wheelchair title when she defeated 2nd seed Aniek Van Koot 6-2, 6-2 in the final, and Kamiji and Kgothatso Montjane defeated Li Xiaohui and Wang Ziying 4-6, 7-5, 10-7 to win the title.

In junior competition, Lilli Tagger, who is coached by 2010 champion Francesca Schiavone, became the first girl from Austria to win the championship, and she did so without dropping a set. She defeated Great Britain's Hannah Klugman 6-2, 6-0. In doubles, Eva Bennemann and Sonja  Zhenikhova upset 3rd seeds Alena Kovackova and Jana Kovackova 4-6, 6-4, 10-8 in the final.

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Thursday, June 5, 2025

It wasn't meant to be--parts 1 and 2

She had a tough draw--Emma Raducanu, Jaqueline Cristian, 12th seed Elena Rybakina, 13th seed Elina Svitolina--and throughout the first several rounds, four-time champion and three-time defending champion Iga Swiatek looked good. Cristian was tricky, and Rybakina looked like she was going to run away with their round of 16 match. Yet the 5th seed managed to turn on a switch that allowed her to defeat the former Wimbledon champion in three sets. Then there was Svitolina, who was coming off an edge-of-the-cliff upset over 4th seed Jasmine Paolini, and was an obvious danger. But Swiatek got through that challenge, too. 

Then she hit the wall that is Aryna Sabalenka. Sabalenka, who had never before played Swiatek at Roland Garros, and who was 1-5 against her on clay, arrived on Court Philippe-Chatrier today without having dropped a set throughout the tournament. It was raining in Paris, so the roof was closed. Within ten minutes, Sabalenka was up a double break. It appeared that the world number 1 was hitting her forehand even harder than usual--and she was. Swiatek, having finally figured out that she had to stand back in order to deal with Rybakina's hard hitting, stood back for Sabalenka, got the breaks back, and maneuvered her way to a tiebreak. But the tiebreak resembled the beginning of the set, with Sabalenka overpowering her opponent 7-1.

In the second set, the world number 5 looked like--herself. Her expert movement was on display, and she made risky shots look like a day on the practice court. The rallies were fast, the hitting was flat, and Swiatek took the set 6-4.

I'm sure that I wasn't the only one who thought: This third set is going to be something else. It was, but not in the way I expected. Sabalenka made no unforced errors, and did what no one does to the bagel queen--she won the set 6-0. Swiatek struggled at this tournament, but she was also able to do some good problem-solving and win five straight matches against good opponents. But her Roland Garros 26-match win streak was broken, and in dramatic fashion.

In the second semifinal match, 2nd seed Coco Gauff faced off against the star of the 2025 French Open, wild card Lois Boisson. Boisson had delivered so many shock results that it no longer seemed prudent to assume that she would lose. All the same, competing against the Coco Gauff that we've been watching in Paris was nothing to be taken lightly. Commentators remarked that Boisson looked tired--and she did--but, to me, she looked even more fatigued in her quarterfinal match against Mirra Andreeva. At any rate, it was clear, early on, that the Frenchwoman had only so much left to give.

Gauff was as on her game as ever, breaking her opponent six times, and saving four out of five break points against her. She defeated Boisson 6-1, 6-2. After the match, Boisson said that she was unable to play her game today: "She was just too good." Gauff, the 2022 French Open runner-up, is 5-5 against Sabalenka, and 1-1 against her on clay. They have never before played each other at the French Open.

Paths to the final:

ARYNA SABALENKA (1)
round 1--def. Kamilla Rakhimova
round 2--def. Jil Teichmann
round 3--def. Olga Danilovic
round of 16-- def. Amanda Anisimova (16)
quarterfinals--def. Zheng Qinwen (8)
semifinals--def. Iga Swiatek (5) 

COCO GAUFF (2)

round 1--def. Olivia Gadecki
round 2--def. Tereza Valentova
round 3--def. Marie Bouzkova
round of 16--def. Ekaterina Alexandrova (20)
quarterfinals--def. Madison Keys (7)
semifinals--def. Lois Boisson (wc) 

In the meantime, we have a champion! Sara Errani and partner Andrea Vavassori, seeded 3rd, won the mixed double championship today when they defeated 4th seeds Taylor Townsend and Evan King 6-4, 6-2 in the final. Errani and Vavassori are the first Italian team to win the French Open mixed doubles title in 67 years. They also won the 2024 U.S. Open. Errani, who is 38, has also won five major women's doubles titles (all with Roberta Vinci), an Olympic gold medal in doubles (with Jasmine Paolini), and she was the French Open singles runner-up in 2012.

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Wednesday, June 4, 2025

French flair in 2025

Today, in Paris, French wild card Lois Boisson continued her amazing run by upsetting 6th seed Mirra Andreeva and reaching the semifinals of the tournament. Boisson had already caused a great stir by reaching the quarterfinals and upsetting 3rd seed Jessica Pegula. Prior to that, she had defeated Anna Kalinina and 24th seed Elise Mertens. She then had to play another French wild card, Elsa Jacquemot, in the third round, and the fact that they had both made it to the third round was news in itself. 

Boisson was granted a wild card to the French Open last year, but shortly before the tournament began, she injured her left knee, tearing the ACL, and had to undergo surgery. Part of her rehab was using virtual reality, and it appears to have paid off. According to the Roland Garros website, "The neurovisual training included sight tests, catching a ball at short range with one eye obstructed, buzzer reaction tests, even using virtual reality headsets."

"Doing these exercises has greatly improved my reactivity and it now comes naturally," Boisson said of the program.

Boisson made her WTA debut in 2021, playing doubles in Lyon. She has won three ITF singles titles, and she won her first WTA title in Sain-Malo, a WTA 125 tournament. She is ranked number 361 in the world.

Andreeva stunned the tennis world earlier this year by winning Dubai and Indian Wells (back-to-back wins). In Dubai, she knocked out 2023 Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova, five-time major champion Iga Swiatek and 2022 Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina before defeating Clara Tauson in the final. In Indian Wells, Andreeva defeated world number 1 Aryna Sabalenka in the final.

But today, the Russian star, who is only 18, could not channel her inner Ostapenko. After narrowly losing the first set in an 8-6 tiebreak, she was obviously rattled by the predictably brutal French crowd. To make her situation worse, her opponent didn't appear to be under any pressure--she just went about her business, utilizing an impressive forehand with a lot of spin.

Boisson is the second player in the past 40 years to defeat multiple top 10 players in her first major main draw. (Monica Seles did it in 1999, also at the French Open.)

In today's other semifinal, 2nd seed (and 2022 runner-up) Coco Gauff defeated 7th seed Madison Keys 6-7(8), 6-4, 6-1. Between them, Gauff and Keys made 101 unforced errors and hit 40 winners, most of which came from Keys' racket. But Gauff went about solving problems and expertly covering the court. 

In yesterday's quarterfinal play, top seed Aryna Sabalenka defeated 8th seed Zheng Qinwen 7-6(7), 6-3. Zheng, who won an Olympic gold medal on the Roland Garros courts last year, was a favorite to win the title, but Sabalenka's was too much for her this week.

In the other quarterfinal, four-time champion and 5th seed Iga Swiatek defeated 13th seed Elina Svitolina 6-1, 7-5. Svitolina's run was notable, however, in that she upset 2024 finalist Jasmine Paolini in the round of 16, in a match in which Paolini led for two sets, and in which she held three match points. 

Swiatek and Sabalenka have never played one another at the French Open, but now they will compete for a place in the final. 

Here is the semifinal singles draw:

Aryna Sabalenka (1) vs. Iga Swiatek (5)
Lois Boisson (wc) vs. Coco Gauff (2)

There have also been other big upsets in Paris. One didn't surprise me that much--four-time defending wheelchair champion Diede de Groot (who is seeded 3rd, and it feels strange just to write that) was knocked out in the first round by Li Xiaohui. de Groot is just returning from injury and subsequent surgery, and Li--who ended de Groot's 145-match win streak at the World Team Cup last year--was certainly not the player she wanted to face in her first round. 

The other upset is indeed surprising: The unseeded team of Anna Danilina and Aleks Krunic upset top doubles seeds Katerina Siniakova and Taylor Townsend 7-5, 4-6, 6-2 in the quarterfinals. In the semifinals, Danilina and Krunic will play another unseeded team--Ulrikke Eikeri and Eri Hozumi. The other semifinal match will feature 4th seeds Mirra Andreeva and Diana Shnaider, who will compete against 2nd seeds Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini.

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Monday, June 2, 2025

In Paris, wild cards and wild goings-on

I doubt that anyone expected two French wild cards to be competing in the third round of the French Open, but that's what happened. Elsa Jacquemont had upset Maria Sakkari and Alycia Parks, and Boisson had upset 24th seed Elise Mertens and Anhelina Kalinina. When they played each other, Boisson emerged the victor, which gave her a slot in the round of 16 against 3rd seed and Charleston champion Jessica Pegula. 

That match went to three sets, and the final game was a almost a sporting event in itself. At 4-5, Pegula held four break points, all of which disappeared, a couple in dramatic fashion. The Frenchwoman clinched it with an impressive forehand shot, and won her biggest match--in her first major competition--3-6, 6-4, 6-4. Ranked number 361 in the world, Boisson is the lowest-ranked woman to reach a major quarterfinal since 2017. The 22-year-old was supposed to have competed last year, but she tore her ACL shortly before the tournament began. What a way to make up for lost time!

The French now have not only a countrywoman in the quarterfinals, but also an "honorary" Frenchwoman in the form of Elina Svitolina (married to Gaeil Monfils), who pulled off a shocking upset against 4th seed and 2024 runner-up Jasmine Paolini. Svitolina was down a set and 1-4, then she was down a set and 3-5, then down a set, 4-5, 15-40. The Ukrainian star saved those two match points, then saved a third match point in a tiebreak. In the third set, Svitolina had a pretty easy time, winning it 6-1. She played well, and her determination was first-rate, but Paolini wilted, presumably from the pressure. I was surprised--Fighting Italians don't generally do that. I had picked Paolini as highly probable to win the whole thing, so file that under What Do I Know?

Those were the most dramatic results, but those weren't the only matches that took fans (and the players) to the edge. Enter defending champion Iga Swiatek, who had to face Elena Rybakina in the round of 16. Swiatek and Rybakina were 4-4 against each other before taking to the court in Paris. Rybakina had won both of their clay court matches, though one of those was won via Swiatek's retirement.

Swiatek has hardly been her best tennis self for the past year, but she has played well at this tournament (which she has won four times). In the round of 16, however, Rybakina, in her no-nonsense (almost) poker-face way, immediately went about dismantling her opponent's game. At 5-0 in the first set, she held a set point, but wasn't able to convert it, and we thereby avoided the hostile takeover of a popular European specialty baked goods company.

Rybakina then immediately went up a break in the second set. Alona Ostapkenko, who has never lost to Swiatek (and who was "scheduled" to meet her again in this round) said, when asked how she always managed to beat the Polish star, replied, "I don't give her any time." Swiatek, like most clay court experts, likes to have some time to set up her shots, and the clay gives her that time. But against big hitters like Ostapenko and Rybakina, time can be a luxury that the four-time French Open champion can't afford. Or at least, a luxuty that she thinks she can't afford. 

As her hopes began to rapidly fade, Swiatek opted to let go of some of her well-known aggression, explore the baseline, and rally with her opponent, thus receiving some precious time. And as things got better for her and she "remembered who she was," the 5th seed was able to throw Rybakina off of her rhythm. The two and half hour match ended with a Swaitek victory--1-6, 6-3, 7-5. 

Zheng Qinwen, for her part, had to work to get past Liudmila Samsonova, whom she eventually defeated, 7-6, 1-6, 6-3. The match lasted two hours and 47 minutes, including an hour-and-a-half first set. In defeating Samsonova, the 2024 Olympic gold medal winner completed a sweep of ten matches on the Roland Garros courts. 

Top seed Aryna Sabalenka defeated Amanda Anisimova 7-5, 6-3. Prior to this event, the U.S. players held a 5-2 record against Sabalenka. Mirra Andreeva defeated former countrywoman Daria Kasatkina 6-3, 7-5, Australian Open champion Madison Keys defeated Hailey Baptiste 6-3, 7-5, and 2022 finalist Coco Gauff defeated Ekaterina Alexadnrova 6-0, 7-5.

Here is the quarterfinal draw:

Aryna Sabalenka (1) vs. Zheng Qinwen (8)
Elina Svitolina (13) vs. Iga Swiatek (5)
Mirra Andreeva (6) vs. Lois Boisson (wc)
Madison Keys (7) vs. Coco Gauff (2)

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