The French Open women’s and men’s finals both went the distance and featured comebacks: Coco Gauff winning in three sets after losing the first to Aryna Sabalenka and Carlos Alcaraz winning in five sets after losing the first two to Jannik Sinner (and saving three championship points in the fourth set, a monumental feat that then required him to break Sinner’s serve, which he promptly did). The men’s match, at five and a half hours, was the longest final at Roland Garros in the open era, and yet neither man took a “bathroom break,” a ploy commonly used – even by the saintly Federer – to try to right the ship and slow the opponent’s momentum.
Both finals were exciting to watch (and fun for me, since I was rooting for the eventual winners) but they were polar opposites when it came to quality. The women’s match was sloppy, with Sabalenka complaining during the match, and afterwards, about the windy conditions. (As if it was windy on only her side of the court.) While the men’s match was a marvel of precision and power, with brilliant shots followed by equally phenomenal responses, again and again, for FIVE AND A HALF HOURS! Fittingly, the women’s match ended on an unforced error, the men’s match with a winner.
