Paris, June 8: Coco Gauff of the United States won her maiden French Open Women's singles title, beating World No.1 Aryna Sabalenka in a gripping three-set final in Paris on Saturday. The 21-year-old came back firing on all cylinders after losing a dramatic 78-minute first set on a tiebreak to stun the World No.1 6-7(5), 6-2, 6-4 in the thrilling clash on Court Philippe-Chatrier that lasted two hours and 38 minutes, adding a first Roland-Garros title to her US Open success from 2023.

Only this week, the American World No.2 conceded she had all but written herself off before the first ball was struck against a dominant Iga Swiatek in the 2022 final – her first on a Grand Slam stage.

While she wavered with a 3-1 lead in the third set, she stayed mentally stronger under pressure and handled the trying, blustery conditions better than her opponent, whom she fell to in the Madrid final last month. After narrowly losing a mesmerizing, back-and-forth first set, Gauff rebounded spectacularly to close out victory after 2 hours and 38 minutes and hoist the Coupe Suzanne Lenglen.

Three years after her runner-up showing at the 2022 Roland Garros, Gauff added the French Open crown to her 2023 US Open title. She also defeated Sabalenka from one set down to collect that title in New York City. Their head-to-head was deadlocked coming into Saturday's final, but Gauff is now 6-5 overall against Sabalenka, 2-1 on clay, and 2-1 in Grand Slams.

Gauff is the first American in a decade to triumph in Paris, since Serena Williams won her third French Open title in 2015. At 21 years old, Gauff is also the youngest American to win the Roland Garros title since Serena Williams' first French Open title in 2002.

Gauff will leave Paris as this year's clay-court win leader, with 18 main-draw wins at WTA events, just ahead of Sabalenka's 17. Coming into the French Open, she reached back-to-back WTA 1000 finals at Madrid and Rome but fell to Sabalenka and Jasmine Paolini, respectively. Sabalenka nearly became the only active woman to have won singles titles at three of the four Grand Slam events, but she was outfoxed by Gauff. Gauff had seven fewer winners than Sabalenka in the final -- but 40 fewer unforced errors.

Sabalenka started the match on a rousing note with a double break for a 4-1 lead in the first set. But Gauff came back with Sabalenka leading 4-1, 40-0 to claw her way back into this first set to level at 4-4. Sabalenka, the world No.1, threw in two double faults from 40-0 in that sixth game and lost her radar after that as errors started creeping into her game.

Despite looking frustrated by the minute, Sabalenka broke again to go up 5-4 and then had two set points during a 13-minute service game, but still couldn't finish off the set. Gauff hangs tough and somehow breaks again by playing the slightly safer tennis to make it 5-5. They hold serve and take the set into a tie-breaker. However, Sabalenka does not lose her nerve and shows her mental strength to survive a tense tiebreak 7-5.

Gauff led 4-1 and 5-3 in the shootout before Sabalenka kicked into gear, producing two superb points from 5-5 to finally finish off the opener with a short volley on her third set point. But Gauff came back strongly to win the second set, showing her mental strength as she quickly moved on from the disappointment of blowing a 5-3 lead in the breaker to dominate the early stages of the second set.

The American broke Sabalenka's serve in the first game and built on that to engineer a 4-1 double break lead. She missed a game-point chance to hold for 5-1 and dropped serve again, but in the end claimed the second set 6-2, sweeping through the remainder of the set to win it in 32 minutes and level the match.

The decider was well fought too, as Gauff broke in the third game for a 2-1 lead, the game ending with a perfect Sabalenka tweener followed by a winning forehand volley from Gauff.

But Sabalenka was not done yet, she maintained calm and regained her rhythm, fighting back from 1-3 down to scramble back to 3-3. But Gauff could not be denied this time, and she won the set 6-4 to claim her first French Open title, dropping to the court in celebration and shedding tears of joy.

(IANS)

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