Because of how different clay court tennis is stylistically from hard court or grass court, the French Open lends itself to dominance by players that have mastered that surface. On the men's side, we saw Rafael Nadal lord over the clay for nearly two decades,

Aryna Sabalenka overcame inner doubts and a strong challenge from Iga Swiatek to win their French Open semifinal clash in three sets. Sabalenka's powerful performance, marked by 28 winners and forcing errors from Swiatek,

In what was their first meeting at a grand slam event since the semi-final of the US Open in 2022, exactly 1,000 days ago, both players struggled on serve in the first set