Coco Gauff goes gladiator at Roland Garros, while Aryna Sabalenka, Iga Swiatek left searching

1. Coco Gauff is The Best Competitor in Tennis

Winning is the desired outcome that we can’t control. But as Gauff has repeatedly demonstrated, competing is the process that one can hold ownership of every single minute.

Gauff’s forehand and serve have inspired enough dialogue to trigger a decade-long teaching conference. Put that aside and let us now praise her career-long superpower: No one in tennis competes better than Gauff. This surfaces not just in the rallies, but also in between points. Turn the clock back 44 years. On an extremely blustery day, Tracy Austin lost the first set of the 1981 US Open final to a powerful opponent, Martina Navratilova, 6-1. From there, Austin dug in, won the next two sets in tiebreakers and, like Gauff, earned her second Grand Slam singles title.

The asset that carried Austin to that victory was the same one that worked for Gauff: positive body language and keen mental focus, as she went about the business of solving one problem after another.

Today, playing Aryna, I was just, like, ‘I just gotta go for it and try my best to get through the match.’ Yeah, that's what I did. Coco Gauff

“Obviously I think the first [Grand Slam singles title] was maybe more emotional,” said Gauff, “but I think this one was just harder because, you know, you win one, and you just don't want to get satisfied with just that one…Today, playing Aryna, I was just, like, ‘I just gotta go for it and try my best to get through the match.’ Yeah, that's what I did.”

There are those who say that the ability to compete effectively cannot be taught. I’d say it is an abdication of responsibility on the part of parents, instructors, coaches and many others. For surely, a positive attitude like Gauff’s can be learned, can’t it? And while she brings her own distinct temperament into competition, Gauff was also taught such values as grit, poise and grace by her parents, and was therefore open to learning yet more from others.

To earn the title in Paris, Gauff also beat the winners of the last two majors, Australian Open champion Madison Keys and US Open titlist Sabalenka. Knowing that could further boost Gauff’s confidence as she heads to Wimbledon—the Slam where Gauff first hit the pro radar six years ago, but also the only major where she’s never gone past the round of 16.

2. Aryna Sabalenka: Still No. 1—But Not Having Fun

The good news for Sabalenka is that she’s reached seven singles finals this season, including each of the year’s first two majors. The bad news is that she’s lost both. So though Sabalenka remains ranked No. 1, this is akin to leading the league in batting average but hardly being the MVP. In Melbourne, Sabalenka encountered Keys in a zone. Fair enough, as it’s plausible to treat such an outcome as a one-off.

But at Roland Garros, Sabalenka lost the battle in a far more emotional and tactical manner. From the minute she began to see her first set lead of 4-1, 40-love unravel, much of the old, highly temperamental Sabalenka surfaced. Give the mental progress she’s made in recent years, it was a disturbing sight to see how a choice to be so agitated concurrently triggered ill-informed tactical decisions.

As one example, Sabalenka lost so much faith in her approach-volley sequence that she hit drop shots far more than viable—a fatal tactic versus an opponent as fast as Gauff (even more so on a windy day, when it’s that much harder to calibrate a drop shot’s placement). And though she rallied well to level the third set and even earn a break point when Gauff served for the title at 5-4 in the third, Sabalenka was repeatedly unable to effectively blend power and accuracy.

Coco handled the conditions much better than I did and fully deserved the win...She was the better player yesterday, and I want to give her the credit she earned. Aryna Sabalenka, in a statement posted to social media

As for Wimbledon, Sabalenka has twice reached the semis there. In 2024, she withdrew with a shoulder injury. Could the grass prove her breakthrough major of the year? Yet eager as Sabalenka is to move forward, instead of tossing what happened at Roland Garros into a trash bin, might she study what happened: This was a defeat triggered to some degree by the negative energy she projected through most of this match. Soon after came such unsporting Sabalenka remarks about how terribly she’d played, giving minimal credit to how Gauff had broken up her game.

I think she won the match not because she played incredible,” Sabalenka said, “just because I made all of those mistakes from—like, if you look from the outside, kind of like from easy balls.”

With a day to reflect, Sabalenka put out an Instagram post apologizing for her comments. “Coco handled the conditions much better than I did and fully deserved the win,” wrote Sabalenka. “She was the better player yesterday, and I want to give her the credit she earned.”

Perhaps Sabalenka might also be pleased to know that, following that tough loss to Austin, Navratilova went on to win four US Open singles titles.

3. Iga Swiatek Gains a Measure of Relief

Considering how distraught Iga Swiatek has appeared for much of 2025, her semifinal run at Roland Garros was, if not triumphant, at least reasonably redemptive. A fourth-round victory over Elena Rybakina showed Swiatek’s finest competitive qualities. There followed a sound win over the tenacious Elina Svitolina. But then, hoping to reach the finals in Paris for the fourth straight year, Swiatek came across a highly proficient Sabalenka.

“Obviously looking at the math, I lost many points right now, but I know that it doesn't really matter,” said Swiatek following that match. “Like, any of us can win these tournaments. We kind of start every tournament from the beginning. So I'm just going to try to do my job and focus on, like, just getting progress and learning new stuff on grass right now.”

A few weeks ago, I opined that, in her quest to rekindle her love of the game, Swiatek should go coach-free for a while. That likely won’t happen. On a more micro basis, my idea is that Swiatek refine her serve. I’ve never been a fan of the motion, a technique I believe makes the delivery predictable and attackable—as proven when Swiatek won a scant 35 percent of second serve points versus Sabalenka. All this said, only traces of what Swiatek showed in Paris give me significant confidence in her possibilities for a deeper than usual Wimbledon run.

4. Loïs Boisson Proved Why Surprise Can Occasionally Be Positive

Global as tennis can be, at Grand Slam events that are attended by vast thousands who scarcely know much about tennis, national pride often carries the day. Let’s also keep in mind the last time a Frenchwoman won the singles title came 25 years ago, when Mary Pierce raised the Coupe Suzanne Lenglen (unfortunately, a ceremony to honor Pierce was cancelled when she withdrew due to personal reasons). It’s been 14 years since a Frenchwoman even got to the semis (Marion Bartoli).

Which leads us to Loïs Boisson. Most times in life, surprise poses danger. Not in sports, though, as proven this year by Boisson’s enchanting journey to the semis. Granted a wild card, the 361st-ranked Boisson—ranked No. 152 a year ago, but subsequently sidelined by a left knee injury—kicked off her first-ever main draw Slam appearance with a fine victory over 24^th-seeded Elise Mertens. But week two was where she took even bigger strides, defeating top tenners Jessica Pegula and Mirra Andreeva. This was the classic case of a free-swinging contender happy to savor the moment and ride the crest of a wave. Or was it simply the culmination of a long road back to proficiency?

“No, I don't think it's a miracle,” Boisson said following her quarterfinal win over Andreeva. “For sure, I have a little bit of luck also, but I think it's just, as you said, the hard work that I put since I started playing tennis and also last year with my rehab and everything. It's just result of hard work. Nothing else.”

Boisson’s massive forehand and many adroit shots wowed the fans, disrupted her opponents, and rocketed her 296 spots up the ranks to 65. Boisson’s significant pro tennis journey has only just begun.

5. Quartet of Quarterfinal Losers Will Still Be Heard From

History is not always written by the winners. All four quarterfinal losers in Paris were surely frustrated by their defeats—but also figure to make their share of headlines at Wimbledon. Andreeva may have withered in the face of an inspired Boisson and a highly partisan crowd, but certainly that experience will help her continue to mature emotionally. Keys, surely happier than ever in the wake of having earned her first singles major, was toe-to-toe with Gauff until the third set of their quarterfinal. Her game is tailor made for Wimbledon.

Svitolina, a revitalized competitor in the wake of her homeland being invaded, continues to impress in these late stages of her career. “I feel that I have a good chance to play good tennis,” said Svitolina following her quarterfinal loss to Swiatek, “to challenge the top players for the titles and some tough matches. I have this belief, and I want to continue working.”

And Qinwen Zheng has now reached the quarterfinals or better at every major save for Wimbledon. Her power baseline game is also suitable for the grass.

6. Early Exits: Downward or Upward?

Emma Navarro, Karolina Muchova and Barbora Krejcikova, three versatile stylists who’ve all cracked the Top 10 at various times, collectively won a single match at Roland Garros this year. While Muchova and Krejcikova were each coming back from injuries, Navarro lost her opener to 68th-ranked Jessica Bouzas Maneiro by the shocking score of 6-0, 6-1. How do those Roland Garros losses affect each contender’s mindset coming into the grass season?

Perhaps they can be swiftly discarded. Krejcikova has only played three matches this year. Muchova, on her good days a next-stage version of Ash Barty, continues to struggle for consistency. And Navarro, who reached the quarterfinals at Wimbledon and the semis at the US Open, has many points to defend in the months to come.

Hopefully, each of these engaging competitors can draw strength from a statement once made by Billie Jean King: There are no failures. Only feedback.