American tennis player Coco Gauff made her debut in the 2025 edition of Roland Garros with a victory that saw her surpass a record held by Serena Williams, as well as causing a brief and amusing delay for fans in her match against Australian Olivia Gadecki.
The second seed in the second Grand Slam of the year, defeated her opponent 6-2, 6-2 in a dominant and positive performance in her quest for her first Roland Garros title.
With the victory, the 21-year-old American set a new tournament record by becoming the youngest American player to achieve 20 victories at the French Open in the Open era.
Gauff surpassed the mark held by her heroine, Williams, who won 20 matches at Roland Garros when she was just a couple of months shy of her 22nd birthday.
On the Parisian clay courts, Gauff played her first final of a major tournament in 2022, although she lost that match against Poland’s Iga Swiatek.
Last year, she reached the semifinals before falling to the same opponent, but this time the American seems to have a golden opportunity to win her first title at the French tournament.
Gauff’s funny moment at Roland Garros
When Gauff walked onto Philippe-Chatrier court to face Gadecki on Tuesday, she realised she had arrived without her rackets.
Gauff looked confused before a ball boy ran out minutes later with her mint-colored racket bag.
“Better that way,” said the court announcer, provoking laughter, applause and smiles from the crowd in the tournament’s main stadium.
As a joke, Gauff blamed her coach for the absence of the rackets.
“Honestly, since I’ve been on tour, my coach always puts the rackets in the bag before the match because he’s very superstitious,” Gauff said. “I blame my coach. It’s OK.”
Gadecki also found humor in the incident.
“Now that I think about it, it seems that was the only way to win the match,” she said of Gauff’s arrival empty-handed. “It was a curious incident.”
Read the full article here
