Ready to rattle women's order

The newly-crowned French Open champion, Coco Gauff, who has enhanced her game, is poised to break the duopoly of Swiatek and Sabalenka, writes Sidney Kiran

When Coco Gauff checked into Paris this summer, her main mission was to be the last woman standing at the French Open.

The 21-year-old, who calls the French capital her favourite city because of its ‘history, food and architecture’, was determined to make amends for the heartbreak she endured in the 2022 final when Iga Swiatek bludgeoned her in a lopsided clash.

The American, competing in her maiden Grand Slam final against a player playing her best tennis then, was completely overwhelmed by the occasion on Court Philippe Chatrier and in the end was reduced to tears.

Although Gauff had won her first Slam at the US Open in 2023 and then followed it up with the season-ending WTA Finals title last season that proved why pundits had long labelled her as the heir to the throne vacated by the legendary Williams sisters — Serena and Venus — it was the Suzanne-Lenglen Cup the outspoken American craved for. At a court where she was left devastated and on a surface which often exposed her vulnerabilities, World No. 2 Gauff was keen to prove her detractors wrong. And she probably played the match of her life; this time she being the one with her arms around the trophy with a smile planted on her sparkling face and her opponent — Aryna Sabalenka — left emotionally devastated.

The final was anything but easy with brutal windy conditions making shot-making extremely difficult. Given her hitherto erratic forehands and the tendency to crack mid-match when things start drifting away, it looked like Gauff may end up suffering a third final defeat of the season on clay when she lost the opening set 6-7. But the Gauff of 2025 is not the same as the Gauff of 2024. Having hired Matt Daly to her team along with longtime coach Jean-Christophe Faurel post the 2024 US Open, Gauff is a completely different player now. 

The reason why Gauff chose to divorce one of her longtime coaches, Brad Gilbert, under whom she developed as a prodigious teenager to one of the highest-paid tennis players in the world, was to address the chinks in her armour. Gauff’s forehand would sometimes start wavering owing to her unstable grip; she was vulnerable in her second serves and then would often become too defensive as matches wore on. Rivals easily decoded her, and the modus operandi was simple: just keep returning the balls and force Gauff into an error. It worked for them, and Gauff struggled to find a response. After a long thought, she decided to ‘spice’ up things in pursuit of excellence and roped in Daly, the ex-coach of former top 10 player Denis Shapovalov. Daly’s specialities lie in racquet grips, service motion and technical finesse.

Most of the time, at the elite level, it’s these minor adjustments and the ability to problem-solve when the pressure is high that make the difference between success and failure. The lessons learnt under Daly were visible in Gauff’s game right throughout the clay court season, where she played some riveting tennis but couldn’t climb the podium, finishing runners-up at the Madrid and Italian Open — both 1000 events. She wanted a trophy as a return for all the hard work she and her team had put in, and all that fire was visible against Sabalenka, a player who herself is one of the most intimidating on the circuit.

Gauff was a set down. World No. 1 Sabalenka was ramping up her engine. The winds started to cause havoc with shot-making, conditions which both finalists felt were terrible. Many thought Gauff would crack. But Gauff, who shot to fame when she beat none other than her icon Venus as a 15-year-old in her Wimbledon debut as a wild card in 2019, unleashed all the improvements she’s made to her game. Her forehand held steady, her second serves were spot-on, and her emotions stayed in check as she completed a fascinating come-from-behind 6-7, 6-2, 6-4 win for her second Grand Slam crown. 

In fact, Gauff had played out the triumph on the eve of the final. Drawing inspiration from 200m Paris Olympic champion Gabby Thomas, who wrote down in her Notes app that she would be wearing the gold medal around her neck, Gauff kept scribbling in a piece of paper “I will be French Open champion 2025” a “bunch of times”. She even kept reciting it in front of a mirror. And like how Thomas delivered on the biggest of occasions at the Stade de France in 2024, Gauff did at Roland Garros. 

“I felt like this is one I really wanted, because I do think this was one of the tournaments that when I was younger that I felt I had the best shot of winning,” said Gauff. “So I just felt like if I went through my career and didn’t get at least one of these, I would feel regrets and stuff. That ceremony when Iga won, I just remembered trying to take it all in and pay attention to every detail and just feel like I wanted that experience for myself.”

Gauff’s enhancements to her game sets up an intriguing three-way battle in women’s tennis. Since the start of the decade, Swiatek and Sabalenka have been the two most dominant forces. Poland’s 24-year-old Swiatek has won five Grand Slams, a total of 22 WTA tour-level titles, the 2023 WTA Finals, 10 WTA 1000 titles and spent 125 weeks at the summit of the world rankings. Belarus’ 27-year-old Sabalenka, the current World No. 1, has pocketed three Slams, won 20 WTA tour-level titles of which nine are 1000 events. While Elena Rybakina, Barbora Krejcikova, Emma Raducanu and Madison Keys have won Slams also to be a part of the elite group, they’ve been unable to match the consistency of Swiatek or Sabalenka.

Gauff, the youngest of the entire lot, has all the tools to dominate the sport, much like the Williams sisters. She always had the game, she just needed to fine-tune it and find ways to evolve in a world where every shot is dissected microscopically. She’s done exactly that and now oozing with confidence. If she can keep going on, then the world is the limit for her with women’s tennis being richer.