The French Open Champion will be crowned on Saturday for the first time: will it be the number 1-rank Aryana Sabalanka Or number 2 Coco goffThe name of Sabalenka has three Grand Slam titles, while Goff has one – but neither won the first in Rolland Garos.
Our experts weigh how each can pull a win.
What can the goff do to defeat Sabalenka?
Rene Stubs, The goff has to serve above 60%, works in advance, or it will have difficult times to work continuously at adequate time. If she can do this and keep pressure on the scoreboard, she can win. Her speed in court means that she can run enough balls down and can emphasize Sabalenka in errors, but the goff cannot serve badly, and needs to keep her double defects under investigation.
Simon Cambers: Goff has a game of trouble for Sabalenka. This is the most important thing, mentally. Backhand to backhand is going to be important. If Goff can get most of the rallies on its own terms, he has a chance to win most baseline competitions. However, he will need to serve high percent of the first serving, however, Sabalenka will hammer the second service until Gauf manages to get him out of his hitting zone.
His tenacity will be important. Throughout the tournament, Goff has shown great mental strength to get out of difficult situations, and the power of the Sabalenka game means that it will come under pressure many times.
D’Arcy Maine: With a final appearance on the line and not only his rival but also 15,000 against either against fans, Gauf played the best and most full match of the tournament on Thursday. It has been proved that she has been mentally difficult and composed, even in the biggest moments she can be, and she should feel more confident than before after her decisive victory. Loys boison,
To not mention, he has defeated Sabalenka first in a major final and he is in this position in Rolland Garos. If she can bring all of that self-confidence, experience and emotional maturity, a strong serving outing and its trademark court coverage and defense, a second slam, feels well within the title access.
Bill Conline: It has been such an odd series, neither the player is causing any long -term profit nor the front and back speed on the other. If the service of the gaff works, then it is not. Sabalanka dominates with his service in a match, then leaves the door open with another service in the next.
Honestly, it is the worst, most obvious advice in the world, but if she simply serves her then the title of goff increases significantly. When she is killing more than 55% of her first service, she is 5–2 against Sabalenka; She is 0-3 when she does not kill that mark. So let’s start from there. She will probably get opportunities to break Sabalenka, but only if her service does not dig a huge hole.
Tom Hamilton: Stability. Gauf cannot go to service and accuracy on the accuracy of those middle-match. So he has to keep his leg down in full way. As Sabalenka showed against sweatek, he has a means to find another level in the closing stages of the match. So Goff really has to do this in two.
As D’Arsi says, she has already learned to deal with a biased crowd, but I think it will look at the Chatiyer loyal partition between the two. Goff has an experience playing a major final in Rolland Garos, and Will Change Disappointment in Saturday’s match. She cannot just give one leg to Sabalenka.
What can Sabalenka do to defeat Goff?
Stabs: Sabalenka will have to take advantage of the second service when she can suppress the forehand of Gauf. He also needs to do good service. If she does not serve well, the goff will win more physical points for a long time. Sabalanka cannot overpress, but the points have to be reduced and shortening the points and do not allow the cow’s physically and mentally to grind down.
shield: Sabalanka will have to believe that if she plays her best, she will win. It is based on the form and the way he plays, as well as the previous performances, even if they are at 5–5 levels in previous meetings. She needs to serve well, but whenever she remembers her first service, she will serve Gauf.
The Sabalenka game has very little margin for error, but as he did in the semi -final win Ega swetecWhen she is needed, she can strengthen it and play with more spin and greater security, even asymmetrical drop shot. The goff moves brilliantly, but there is a lot of touch in Sabalenka, so when the rallies deepen, it has options.
I have: Play in the same way as he did in a decisive set against sweatek? If she does so, it is difficult to think that anyone can stop her. But as Simon mentions, Sabalenka and Gauf have a single head-to-head record, showing how well they match.
Sabalanka won his most recent meeting in the final in Madrid last month and in addition to promoting the confidence of that victory, it makes some blueprint to Sabalenka, which would need to do what he would need to win on Saturday. On Thursday, what he did against Sweetake came out with her leg on Sabalenka gas, fixed the speed and made Gauf uncomfortable from the beginning. While Goff raised his level, Sabalenka still did it.
And this is what Sabalenka has done throughout the fortnight in Paris – she just keeps looking for ways to win and plays her game in every match. If she can focus on the match in hand, and not the vastness of the moment, the trophy is to win her.
Connelly: In the last year, both of them have played three times. When Goff defeated Sabalenka in straight sets in Riyadh, he won 13 out of 17 points (76%) which lasted for seven or more shots. When Sabalanka won three-seater in Wuhan, he took 17 (55%) out of 31. And in Madrid, his only meeting on Clay in the last four years, Sabalenka won 24 such points out of 24 such points (54%).
If Sabalenka is able to avoid the speed and defense of the cow’s speed and defense, and if he is able to divide at least those long points, it shuts down a major potential avenue of success for Gauf and forces him to match the strength for power on small points. It tilts things quite well in favor of Sabalenka.
Hamilton: He just has to stick to the work done so far. She has a shot variety to harass Gauf and she will somehow punish another work. If he finds the level made in that third set against Swetech, no player on the planet can face it. Sabalenka will not be stranded a little bit and will be confident of victory. She has appeared comfortably in the last fortnight in the Lolland Garos and is in a hurry to remove the pressure elsewhere. This calm confidence is inauspicious and you feel that if he finds the level of swiytech-type of controlled aggression, he is a favorite.
Who will win?
Stabs: Little, and I mean LittleThe edge for Sabalenka in three sets.
shield: Sabalanka feels that she needs to win it, which is considered one of the great people of all time and is an additional inspiration that needs to be brought to the line. However, more than anything, there are very few holes in his game, while Gauf has issues with his service and forehand, which can break under pressure.
In some ways, Gauf feels that he has nothing to lose, which can make him dangerous, but when the heat turns on and things become difficult, although he has very mental fate, it will probably not be enough. Sabalenka in two sets.
I have: Sabalenka in three sets. I chose Goff at the beginning of the tournament, but the close-masterclass near Sabalenka against Swiatech reconsidered me. After watching her game at such a high level against a three-time defending champion, and knowing that she wants to win a non-hard-court major and also avenges the 2023 US Open Final, a Sabalenka victory seems unavoidable to all.
Connelly: The way the speed changes in this series, a three-seater will not be surprised at all. And when in doubt, I am going to go with a better overall player. Sabalenka is 40–6 this year, she has reached the finals of five of her last six slams, and she took the queen of Rolland Garos in the semi-finals. Gauf was fantastic in semi and if she is serving, she will give herself a concrete opportunity, but Sabalenka is the best player in the world, and while she does not always do win Her finals, we will say that she takes it.
Hamilton: Ok, so everyone has gone with Sabalenka. So for the opposite, it is the time of goff. I remember that I was sitting in a press conference after his match after losing the title to Swiyatech in 2022. She was destroyed, but it was also a quiet resolution that if she got a chance again, she would not let it slip. Rhyme and reason states that it is the title of Sabalenka, but the ineligible quality of the cool resolution of the goff will promote this title in its favor. He just has to work before those people, and Sabalenka did not get one leg. If she comes out of flying blocks, it is a title of gaff.
