Coco Gauff wins the French Open, her second Grand Slam title: NPR

Coco Gauff celebrates after winning the last match of her ladies singles against Witarus’ Aryna Sabalenka on the French Open Tennis Tournament in Paris on Saturday.

Thibuad Moritz/AFP via Getty images

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Thibuad Moritz/AFP via Getty images

Coco Gauff, the 21-year-old American tennis star, has defeated Aryna Sabalenka in the French Open Women’s Singles Final to claim the second Grand Slam title of her young career.

The final of Saturday between Sabalenka and Gauff, who are at number 1 and number 2 respectively in the world, was the first Grand Slam -Ladies Final that has had the top two players in the world since 2018. Gauff is the first American champion at the French Open since Serena Williams in 2015.

The two players fought over three sets. After Sabalenka won the first set 7-6, Gauff stormed back to dominate the second set, 6-2, before he survived the Belarusian player 6-4 in a Gutsy Final Set. After the last volley of Sabalenka had just landed wide from the line, Gauff collapsed into the red clay of Roland-Garros, her hands high in the air.

“I don’t think one of us played great,” Gauff said after the game in an interview with TNT. “But I knew that as soon as I got on the field when I had the feeling that it was windy that it would be one of those competitions. So I just tried to give myself the best chance and fight every point.”

Gauff had reached the final after beating colleague -American Madison Keys, no. 7, in the quarterfinals and then along the crowd of Schat Lois Boisson, the French player ranked no. 361 who had mounted an exciting Cinderella Run. On the other side of the bracket was the imposing Sabalenka, who rose to the no. 1 in the world in New York last year after winning Australia and the US Open in New York. Sabalenka had overthrowed the Polish star Iga Swiatek, winner of the last three consecutive French open in the semi -final.

As a teenager, Gauff burst the tennis world included a junior title at Roland-Garros in 2018, her first career Junior Grand Slam victory.

Americans have won the Grand Slam titles for women this year so far. Gauff’s victory follows the title of Keys on the Australian Open in January.

The French open men’s final between no. 1 Jannik Sinner and no. 2 Carlos Alcaraz is planned for Sunday.