Gauff Wins Another Championship
Last Saturday, Coco Gauff won the French Open against Aryna Sabalenka. The match took place in the Roland Garros stadium in Paris.
The French Open is an annual tennis tournament that has both men’s and women’s competitions. It was established in 1891, but only people who were in French clubs were allowed to compete. In 1925, it allowed professionals from other countries to join. Also that year, the official location of the games changed to Stade Roland Garros (Roland Garros stadium) and has always been there since. One twist of competing there is that the tennis court is made of clay. Games are slightly different there because the ball can bounce higher and slower than the normal grass or hard grounds, and players can slide on the ground to catch difficult serves. Only around 60 years ago, in 1968, the Open allowed people from any skill level to join competitions.
There are 4 major tennis championships in the world: Australian Open, US Open, Wimbledon, and French Open. Winning one of them can award between 2 million to 4 million dollars and a Grand Slam title. After Gauff’s win, she received 2.5 million euros, or about 2.9 million USD. It was her second Grand Slam; the first was winning 3 million in the 2023 US Open. In both of those championship rounds, she faced Aryna Sabalenka.
During this year’s faceoff, Sabalenka won the tiebreaker when the first match was tied, but Gauff won the second 6-2. The last set was the closest, and Gauff scored exactly two points more than her opponent before ending, which is the minimum she needed to win. Right after the game, they shook hands to acknowledge that both of them played well, but later, Sabalenka told reporters that she only lost because of the windy conditions. This statement seemed to hint that she thought Gauff won because of luck, instead of that she played better. She apologized on social media on Sunday, saying that she didn’t mean anything against anyone and said that Gauff had played well. Overall, her comments toward losing a Grand Slam to Gauff seemed show bad sportsmanship after losing but can be excused that she probably cared about the tournament and was a bit mad afterwards.
