Due to how totally different clay court docket tennis is stylistically from arduous court docket or grass court docket, the French Open lends itself to dominance by gamers which have mastered that floor. On the lads’s aspect, we noticed Rafael Nadal lord over the clay for practically 20 years, successful 14 French Open titles.
On the ladies’s aspect, Iga Swiatek has turn out to be the queen of Roland-Garros, coming into 2025 because the winner of the final three French Opens and 4 of the final 5. Swiatek arrived at Thursday’s semifinal match in opposition to world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka having dropped only one set all event (the opening set of the fourth spherical in opposition to Elena Rybakina), however her quest for 4 straight French Open titles got here to an finish in opposition to the hard-hitting Sabalenka (7-6(1), 4-6, 6-0).
The world No. 1 got here out sizzling, successful the primary three video games of the match to take an early benefit. Regardless of showing pissed off early, Swiatek battled again to drive a primary set tiebreaker, however Sabalenka had the solutions and cruised by means of the tiebreak at 7-1 to win the primary set.
Within the second set, it was Swiatek that put Sabelenka on the again foot and had her visibly pissed off and being very vocal together with her field, because the Polish star bounced again to win the set 6-4.
Each gamers struggled on their serve within the first two units, as there have been 11 breaks of serve within the first 23 video games of the match. That meant neither participant may achieve full management and made for some thrilling, tense tennis. Nonetheless, because the third set started, Sabalenka was in a position to not solely get an early break however lastly consolidated that with a pair of early holds to take a 3-0 benefit like she did to open the match. This time, Swiatek didn’t have a solution in her, and Sabalenka rolled by means of the ultimate set, 6-0, to punch her ticket to the French Open closing for the primary time in her profession.
Whereas it wasn’t an upset (Sabalenka was the slight pre-match favourite) it was nonetheless a little bit of a stunning outcome merely due to how dominant Swiatek has been on clay since turning professional. Swiatek’s document at Roland-Garros is staggering, as she gained 26 consecutive matches courting again to the 2021 quarterfinals and had simply two losses all-time on the French Open getting into Thursday’s semifinal. Swiatek has additionally struggled on the entire in 2025 as she continues to be and not using a singles title and has solely reached one closing in any event.
The French Open title streak is now over and Sabalenka will probably be surging with confidence going into the ultimate in opposition to both 2-seed Coco Gauff or the event’s Cinderella story, French qualifier Lois Boisson. It’s Sabalenka’s fifth grand slam closing in her final six appearances as she is one step nearer to a fourth main title and the third leg of the profession grand slam.
