French Open 2025: How Olympian Gabby Thomas' video and a mirror inspired Coco Gauff to victory
Coco Gauff after winning the French Open final over Aryna Sabalenka (Images via X/@RolandGarros)
The Times of India at Roland Garros
: Coco Gauff scripted a gritty comeback win over the world No.1 Aryna Sabalenka in the French Open final. The American won hearts and applause as she neutralized challenging conditions with her athleticism and monk-like calm, but did the 21-year-old take a page off pop culture and actually manifest her win on Saturday evening?
After the two-hour 38-minute final Gauff pulled out a sheet of paper, carrying the words, I will win French Open 2025.
The handwritten sentence was repeated eight times on the sheet.
The American was on TikTok on the eve of the final when an old interview of Gabrielle Thomas, the Olympic 200m champion, cropped up on her page. The American sprinter had written multiple times that she was going to get gold in the Paris Olympics.
'I was like, why is this video of her being interviewed from the Olympics coming up on my page (now)?' Gauff said, adding, 'Gabby says she wrote it either 50 or 500 times, I can't remember.
She wrote, 'I will be the Olympic champion.' I was like, 'I have this hotel (pad) and I'm going to write it as many times as I can fit on the (page), and I'm done.''
Bombay Sport Exchange Ep. 6: Harish Thawani on cricket's TV market and the watershed moments
'After that I looked myself in the mirror and told myself that I had the belief. Then obviously it happened,' she said of her win. 'I didn't know if it was going to work or not, but it did. It's a great mindset that she (Gabrielle Thomas) had. I was on the mirror writing, trying to hurry up and write because I was ready to go to sleep.
by Taboola
by Taboola
Sponsored Links
Sponsored Links
Promoted Links
Promoted Links
You May Like
Concentrated Siberian Ginseng Extract 2oz
Superior Ginseng
Undo
But did I win because of that, I don't know, but I'm going to say, I did.'
Gauff, who took charge of the final, where she faced Sabalenka, the heaviest ball striker in the game, displaying a maturity beyond her years. The American has practice, having done much the same thing with her career.
Poll
Do you think Coco Gauff outclassed Aryna Sabalenka in the final?
Yes, the World No 1 was far from her best
No, she got lucky
A couple of years ago she asked her father Corey, who was managing and coaching her, to step back. She wanted the driver's seat. It's not a common thing in sport, where parents, who give up livelihoods for their children's careers, often refuse to let go when the athlete might benefit in a professional environment.
'(When) I asked my dad to take a step back, it ended up being a great thing for both of us,' Gauff said, adding that she asked her mother Candi, a former athlete, to travel with her. 'I needed her to be on the road more, (travelling) with a team full of men, I needed some estrogen, some female energy here. Women just notice more things.'
Arshdeep Singh: The Poet Who Bowls Thunder | Stories from His Father & Coach
'When you're younger you don't know how to distinguish your feelings, what you want to do and when's the right time to say it and things like that,' Gauff explained, 'As I got older, I felt I learned a lot about myself.
I know myself now, maybe not 100 percent, but I know a little bit more about the things I like and don't like. That my parents support those decisions mean a lot.'
Coco Gauff's affirmation that she wrote down ahead of the final vs Aryna Sabalenka (Image via X)
The world No.2, who now has two Major titles from three finals, said her parents trust her.
'I'm a dynamite personality so they know if I really (say) something, I mean it,' she said of her decision to take charge of her tennis. 'I know myself and know what I need, maybe not in the moment, but after trial and error you start to learn things about yourself. I'm glad that I don't have pressure (from my) parents. They genuinely want to see me happy and obviously the on-court stuff is great, but their biggest goal for me in life is just to live a happy quality of life.
'
1 -
She's the first to win aGrand Slam final afterdropping the first set to theNo. 1 player since VenusWilliams two decades agoat Wimbledon, and the firstat Roland Garros since SteffiGraf in 1999.
21 -
The youngest to win major women's titles on multiple surfaces since Maria Sharapova at Wimbledon 2004 and the US Open 2006.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Hindustan Times
33 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
Simone Biles and Riley Gaines explosive feud explained as Danica Patrick weighs in: ‘Woke mind virus'
Danica Patrick has weighed in on Simone Biles and Riley Gaines' explosive feud. The 7-time Olympic gold medalist slammed the former swimmer in an X, formerly Twitter post over the weekend, calling her a 'sore loser.' She made the scathing remark in response to the 25-year-old's criticism of a Minnesota high school softball team's victory while being led by a trans pitcher. As the duo exchanged barbs on social media, former NASCAR driver Patrick took to social media to back Gaines. 'This issue has a shelf life. I truly believe common sense will prevail,' she said on Instagram Sunday. 'But until then, I am grateful for people like Riley Gaines who are making sure no one gets away with it. Not to mention the fact that she actually lived it,' the 43-year-old went on, adding, 'Defending men in women's sports is the woke mind virus and/or another issue that requires therapy. Either way, it is so irrational.' 'You're truly sick, all of this campaigning because you lost a race. Straight up sore loser,' Biles told Gaines in response to the latter's anti-trans post. 'You should be uplifting the trans community and perhaps finding a way to make sports inclusive OR creating a new avenue where trans feel safe in sports.' 'Maybe a transgender category IN ALL sports!! But instead… You bully them… One things for sure is no one in sports is safe with you around!!!!!' the 28-year-old added in her tweet, which has amassed over 50 million views so far. In a separate tweet, Biles told Gaines to 'bully someone your own size, which would ironically be a male.' Gaines quickly fired back with, 'This is actually so disappointing. It's not my job or the job of any woman to figure out how to include men in our spaces.' 'You can uplift men stealing championships in women's sports with YOUR platform. Men don't belong in women's sports and I say that with my full chest.' The Gaines for Girls podcast host uncovered a 2017 tweet from Biles that read, 'ahhhh good thing guys don't compete against girls or he'd take all the gold medals !!' The former swimmer quipped, 'Oop don't you hate it when your past self completely undermines your current nonsensical argument? How has 2025 Simone reconciled with the fact 2017 Simone was a 'truly sick bully' by her own standard?'
Time of India
39 minutes ago
- Time of India
RD Baheti Charitable Trust Jaipur District Open Badminton Championship gets underway; Dr Neeraj K Pawan inaugurates week-long competition
Jaipur: The RD Baheti Charitable Trust Jaipur District Open Badminton Championship got underway at the Sawai Mansingh Indoor Stadium Hall here on Monday. Principal sports secretary Dr Neeraj K Pawan (Sports and Youth Affairs), RD Baheti and Pradeep Baheti inaugurated the week-long annual tournament. Neeraj K Pawan and Pradeep Baheti played a rally to mark the inauguration in the presence of players and Jaipur District Badminton Association officials. Neeraj K Pawan was introduced to all the players on this occasion. He wished them all the best for a great performance. Jaipur District Badminton Association secretary Manoj Dasot said that around 700 players are participating in the competition. According to organizing secretary Atul Gupta, around 350 matches were played on the first day in which matches of the qualifying round of Under-15 category were played. Around 16 players including Abhishek Sami Chaudhary, Lakshya Devanda, Vikas Kumar, Aarav, Arshdeep Mishra, Yashraj, Yuvraj Singh, Kavya Manwani Dev Chaudhary, Divyanshu Gagan, Sakshat Bijarnia, Abhinav Chaudhary, Kirtiraj, Arjun Vijayvargiya and Siddhant reached the main draw after winning their respective qualifying rounds, while all the seeded players reached the next round after winning two rounds among the U-15 15 girls. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Giao dịch CFD với công nghệ và tốc độ tốt hơn IC Markets Đăng ký Undo Atul Gupta informed that in the inaugural ceremony, Ashok Colony, Virendra Bhargava, Alka Batra, Ritu Lohia, Rajeev Nagori, Rajendra Patni, Jagdish Khatri, Vikas Mathur, Aman Kumawat of Jaipur District Badminton Association were present. On Tuesday, the Under-15, Under-17 and senior category women's and men's singles matches will be played.
The Hindu
39 minutes ago
- The Hindu
History lessons: on the French Open
The yearning for historical greatness is common among sports fans. Contemporary success and genius notwithstanding, there is often a tendency to hark back to the past and lament that present-day virtuosi are not a patch on the older ones. In tennis, this storyline was expected to unfold in the immediate aftermath of the 'Big Three' era as Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal exited, and Novak Djokovic started displaying his waning powers. It is to Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner's credit that they have allowed none of this talk to surface. Sunday's fascinating five-set French Open final was the latest piece of evidence as the Spaniard outlasted the World No. 1 over five hours and 29 minutes of intense, scintillating action. The victory brought Alcaraz his fifth Grand Slam trophy, and the World No. 2 became only the third man after Gustavo Kuerten and Nadal to defend titles at Roland-Garros this millennium. Alcaraz and Sinner have now swept the last six Majors and eight of the previous 11. They are firmly perched at the top of tennis' current totem pole, and going by the 12th act of their engrossing play in Paris, there is little doubt that it is their rivalry that will prove era-defining for the men's game. Leading in, it was Sinner who had been more clinical, with the highlight being the ruthless dismantling of 24-time Major winner Djokovic in the semifinal. The 23-year-old had won 29 straight sets at Slams this year, and when he made it 31 by pocketing the first two against Alcaraz, a third straight Major — fourth overall — loomed. But Alcaraz, who came in after triumphs in Monte Carlo and Rome, found a higher gear when threatened — erasing three match points in the fourth set, breaking Sinner when the Italian was serving for the championship and overcoming his own disappointment of failing to serve it out in the fifth stanza to turn the tables fully. Saturday's women's final between No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka and No. 2 Coco Gauff was as dramatic and capricious, but alternated between middling and glorious. In the end, it was Gauff who proved steadier, overcoming some treacherous conditions and her erratic opponent in two hours and 38 minutes. Sabalenka, in fact, was the favourite, having also ousted three-time defending champion Iga Swiatek en route. But her power-packed game crumbled in the face of Gauff's restrained art as the American left her nursing consecutive defeats in Slam finals. For Gauff, 21, it was her second Major, and with a technique that is gradually improving, she is sure to rise further.
