In their eagerly awaited 2025 French Open semi-final, Aryna Sabalenka faced Iga Swiatek. The two competitors fought tooth-and-nail on the fabled red clay of Roland Garros. The battle featured amazing back-and-forth runs and clutch plays down the stretch, as fans at the Clash were on the edge of their seats. It was a masterclass by both players as they battled for the final.
The final started with Sabalenka coming out of the gates firing. She took the fight to Swiatek, earning three break points on the Pole’s serve within a few minutes. This assault blocked Swiatek from ever getting on the offensive. Snapshot of the day One of those moments came early on, as Swiatek faced a break point and easily looked to be facing a mountain to climb.
Tempers flared when the umpire wouldn’t check a key mark. He told Swiatek that she waited too long to challenge, an admission that would have shifted the entire momentum of the match. This decision added to the heat that was now on Swiatek. Consequently, she found herself staring down three break points after her forehand flew long. Sabalenka seized the window, breaking Swiatek’s serve to sail out to an insurmountable 4-1 lead.
As the set advanced, Sabalenka took her opportunity with one break point to close it out. At the same time, Swiatek struggled to find solid ground to stand on again. Swiatek proved her fighting spirit by coming back to 40-15. She clutched her opportunity and swung a backhand return, ever so wide, for the win, returning the break and turning the momentum back in her favor.
In a potentially match-defining moment, Sabalenka called over the umpire to inspect a mark. Instant review reversed call, and the ball was good. The match went back and forth until it was Swiatek’s turn to roar back, her power and smashing wide her first ace of the match. Each player produced clutch, explosive, full-bodied counterpart returns. Then Sabalenka hit a huge forehand to go 0-15, then a massive return to make it 0-30 on Swiatek’s serve.
In the first point of the fourth game, Swiatek’s speed and creativity were on display when she pulled Sabalenka wide with a down-the-sideline forehand. After this, Swiatek produced an extraordinary off-the-back-foot forehand winner to further highlight why she’s at home in the world’s biggest arena. The opening set was hotly disputed throughout, but it was Sabalenka who seized the moment and closed it out in a tiebreak 7-6.
As you can imagine, the commentators were in a tizzy from start to finish. Louis Daillencourt joked at having lost the grammatical argument over the comma that led to the title of their session. He added, “When they’re as good as the two about to start, they’re plenty!”
His colleague Joel Fine chimed in with a light-hearted correction: “Even bigger French grammar nerd here brags Joel Fine. As the qualifying adjective was modifying two games, it must be ‘suffisants’. Back to the tennis now…
The mood continued to be charged as fans took to … Continued The …Kerrith Britland posed an intriguing question about comparing Sabalenka’s raw power to that of Serena Williams, suggesting a desire for deeper technical insight during commentary: “I don’t know if you got the chance to see Serena live,” he wrote, “but if so, how do Saba’s and Serena’s games compare in terms of raw power? Why is tennis commentating so far behind in terms of technical insight?”
Chris Collinson drew attention to Sabalenka’s outfit: “That outfit Saba is sporting is deffo celeste, as made famous by the legendary bike company Bianchi,” he noted, adding some historical context about Bianchi’s iconic color.
The semi-final match between Sabalenka and Swiatek was an incredible display of athleticism. It ignited some of the most passionate discourse ever between the ranks of commentators and diehard fans. As the players met in postgame ceremony, tension hanging thick around the arena, it was hard to determine if LeBron or Kobe was the true winner that day.