Ten incredible things Coco Gauff achieved by winning Roland Garros

We should have all seen Coco Gauff’s triumph at Roland Garros coming—not only was she the only woman to reach the final at the two biggest clay-court tune-ups in Madrid and Rome, she was the only woman to even reach the semifinals at both of them.

In Paris, she carried that momentum all the way to the title, capping it with a 6-7 (5), 6-2, 6-4 victory over Aryna Sabalenka.

Here are 10 incredible things she achieved in Paris this year:

• She’s the first American to win Roland Garros in a decade. The last player from the U.S. to win the clay-court major was Serena Williams, in 2015. And at 21, Gauff is also the youngest American to win Roland Garros since 2002, when Serena won the first of her three career titles in Paris.
• Having now won the 2023 US Open and 2025 Roland Garros, she’s the youngest woman to capture Grand Slam titles on multiple surfaces since Maria Sharapova. Sharapova was 19 when she won her second major at the 2006 US Open, having already won Wimbledon two years earlier.
• She’s the first woman to come back from a set down to beat the reigning No. 1 in a Grand Slam final in two decades. The last time that happened was when Venus Williams beat Lindsay Davenport, 4-6, 7-6 (4), 9-7—she also saved a match point—in the 2005 Wimbledon final.
• She’s the first woman to come back from a set down to beat the reigning No. 1 in the Roland Garros final this century. The last time that happened was when Steffi Graf came back from a set and a break down to beat Martina Hingis in the 1999 final, 4-6, 7-5, 6-2.

• She’s now 2-0 against Sabalenka in Grand Slam finals, coming back from a set down both times. She also beat her in the final of the 2023 US Open, 2-6, 6-3, 6-2. Gauff leads their overall head-to-head, 6-5.
• She captured her 30th Top 10 win of her career. She’s the first player born in 2004 or later to reach that milestone.
• She also captured a milestone 10th tour-level title of her career. And half of those titles are “big” titles, too—two Grand Slams (2023 US Open and 2025 Roland Garros), one WTA Finals (2024) and two WTA 1000s (2023 Cincinnati and 2024 Beijing).
• She’s now 22-0 at Roland Garros in the last four years against everyone other than Iga Swiatek. Her only three losses in that span at the clay-court major have come to the Pole—in the 2022 final, 6-1, 6-3; in the 2023 quarterfinals, 6-4, 6-2; and in the 2024 semifinals, 6-2, 6-4.

• Having won the girls’ title in 2018, she’s now the only active women’s player to win both the junior and professional titles at Roland Garros. And just the second active player—male or female—to do it, after Stan Wawrinka, who won the boys’ title in 2003 and the men’s title in 2015.
• And finally, she expanded her lead at No. 2 on the WTA rankings—by a lot. She went into Roland Garros with a 620-point lead over No. 3 Jessica Pegula (6,863 to 6,243), but she’s now a more robust 1,600 points ahead of her countrywoman, 8,083 to 6,483.

Catching Sabalenka at No. 1 is another story though, as Gauff only trimmed a 3,820-point gap (10,683 to 6,863) to 3,470 points (11,553 to 8,083). And with Sabalenka having missed Wimbledon last year due to a shoulder injury, she’ll only be adding points there this year.

Of course, Gauff can add points at the All England Club herself. She reached the round of 16 there in 2024—the third time she did so in her career—and has plenty of momentum heading into Wimbledon.