Look at the scoreboard, dear – Coco Gauff wins French Open then gets sledged by Aryna Sabalenka

Coco Gauff beat Aryna Sabalenka in the French Open final nearly as emphatically as Sabalenka defeated herself. Just ask her.

Coco Gauff won the French Open final with a tough, calm, gutsy, tenacious, scrappy, rope-a-dope, peek-a-boo, thrilling, no-frilling, David-and-Goliath final set as Aryna Sabalenka suffered the sort of psychological distress that caused all her trials and tribulations against Ashleigh Barty.

Sabalenka lost to Barty on three from four occasions between 2019 and 2021 while competing like it was a screaming match against someone who refused to say a word. She was equally flummoxed and flabbergasted, and hysterical and panicked, against the sure-and-steady Gauff, who had none of Sabalenka’s weaponry but competed with a ticker the size of the Eiffel Tower to pickpocket a 6-7 (5/7) 6-2 6-4 triumph on Court Philippe-Chatrier.

French Open women’s champion Coco Gauff lifts the Coupe Suzanne Lenglen trophy. Picture: Getty Images

Gauff beat Sabalenka nearly as emphatically as Sabalenka defeated herself. Just ask her. The world No. 1 sprayed 70 unforced errors, a shocking error rate in a three-set match, and afterwards was at pains, while in emotional pain, to highlight the fact Gauff didn’t exactly play the match of the century. At no stage did the 21-year-old American look like the best player at the Open … until she won it … which was perhaps the most meritorious feat of all. Gauff fought the good fight and finished in the glorious position of last woman standing.

“This will hurt so much, especially after such a tough two weeks of playing great tennis in terrible conditions,” Sabalenka said at the presentation ceremony. “Thank you to my team for the support. I’m sorry for this terrible final. As always, I will come back stronger.”

When Sabalenka added, “To Coco, you deserve it. You’re a hard worker, a fighter,” she was complimenting personality more than a high standard of play.

“It was really, honestly, the worst tennis I’ve played in the last I don’t know how many months,“ Sabalenka continued. ”Conditions were terrible and she simply was better in these conditions than me.

“I think it was the worst final I ever played. I think she won the match not because she played incredible, just because I made all of those mistakes. I think I was overemotional. I think I didn’t really handle myself quite well mentally, I would say. Sometimes that happens, you know? You just wake up and you don’t feel your best and another player goes for whatever and it works. For you, nothing is working. I guess today wasn’t the day.“

Apropos of not very much at all, Sabalenka claimed Iga Swiatek, whom she beat in the semi-finals, would have won the final. “If Iga had beaten me the other day, I think she’d come out today and get the win,“ Sabalenka said. “It just hurts. I’ve been playing really well and then in the last match, to go out there and do what I did, it hurts.”

Sabalenka could tell her story walking to Wimbledon. As every triumphant athlete has the right to say – look at the scoreboard, dear.

During Gauff’s really mediocre quarter-final win over Madison Keys last week, I wrote in my notebook, “I’d beat Coco Gauff 6-4 6-3.” In truth, I’m unworthy to tie the 21-year-old’s New Balance shoelaces, but I’m convinced she’s at the forefront of a particularly erratic and soft era for women’s tennis after the two-decade dominance of the Williams sisters and the lovely little cameo from the lovely little Barty.

Told Sabalenka thought Swiatek would have won the final, Coco could have popped and replied, so what? She said: “I don’t agree with that. I mean, I’m sitting here (as the winner). Her being No. 1 in the world, she was the best person to play.

“I think I got the hardest matchup, just if you go off stats alone. Obviously, Iga being a champion here, it was going to be a tough match either way. Regardless of who I played, I think I had a good shot to win. I definitely had that belief.”

Gauff added: “If you asked me honestly who I wanted to play, it was Iga. Just because I felt Aryna was playing so good. Iga is a tough opponent. Neither of them would’ve been the better shot. It played out how it played out and that’s why I’m here today.”

Gauff after beating Sabalenka. Picture: AP

Sabalenka’s 70 unforced errors came from a racquet she was holding like an out-of-control hose. Gauff’s tally was 30. They both hit 30 winners in a stat showing the evenness of Gauff’s play, all-square, compared with the Sabalenka train skidding all over the tracks before arriving at panic station. When points extended past nine shots, Gauff had a significant 17-7 advantage, all mental wins, as Sabalenka capitulated, screaming at her entourage like a discombobulating Nick Kyrgios.

Gauff quietly came to realise she just had to keep dangling enough rope. She played as though some famous Proclaimers lyrics were her mantra: “I’ll do my best. I’ll do my best I can.”

She did enough and deserved immense credit for the toughness, the calmness, the tenacity, the willingness to scrap, the guts, the rope, the peeking-a-booing, the thrills, the frill-free dedication to winning anyway she could, and for slaying the giant in two hours and 37 minutes of unshakeably patient clay court tennis.

You prevail on Parisian dirt by missing as few balls as possible. Gauff didn’t miss half as many as Sabalenka and that’s why she finished the Open cradling the Suzanne Lenglen Cup.

“For the people out there saying, well, it’s cause Sabalenka made 70 unforced errors, the reason she made so many is because she’s playing the best defender and athlete in the game,” Australian analyst Rennae Stubbs wrote on social media. “It’s clay and clay is about controlled aggression. Coco used that to her advantage and didn’t panic.

“It was windy and difficult conditions and Coco handled it better because she made more balls. Again, that’s clay and tennis.”

Gauff with the Coupe Suzanne Lenglen trophy as she celebrates with ball kids. Picture: Getty Images

Match point was beautiful. The final throes of a major always are. Gauff kicked in a slow serve. Hit a short and tentative forehand. Slogged a deep and anxious forehand. She thought it was going long but the wind kept it in. She punched a two-handed backhand before Sabalenka coughed up one last unforced error for the road.

Gauff fell to the court in relief and disbelief and then she put her hands over her face and she muttered, “Oh my God, oh my God”. As ever, and completely appropriately, emblazoned across the grandstand in giant letters was a quote from Roland Garros, the French war hero and aviator: “Victory belongs to the most tenacious”.