2025 French Open results: Aryna Sabalenka ends Iga Swiatek’s bid for a fourth straight title in semifinals
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, winning 14 French Open titles.
On the women’s side, Iga Swiatek has become the queen of Roland-Garros, coming into 2025 as the winner of the last three French Opens and four of the last five. Swiatek arrived at Thursday’s semifinal match against world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka having dropped just one set all tournament (the opening set of the fourth round against Elena Rybakina), but her quest for four straight French Open titles came to an end against the hard-hitting Sabalenka (7-6(1), 4-6, 6-0).
The world No. 1 came out hot, winning the first three games of the match to take an early advantage. Despite appearing frustrated early, Swiatek battled back to force a first set tiebreaker, but Sabalenka had the answers and cruised through the tiebreak at 7-1 to win the first set.
In the second set, it was Swiatek that put Sabelenka on the back foot and had her visibly frustrated and being very vocal with her box, as the Polish star bounced back to win the set 6-4.
Both players struggled on their serve in the first two sets, as there were 11 breaks of serve in the first 23 games of the match. That meant neither player could gain full control and made for some thrilling, tense tennis. However, as the third set began, Sabalenka was able to not only get an early break but finally consolidated that with a pair of early holds to take a 3-0 advantage like she did to open the match. This time, Swiatek did not have an answer in her, and Sabalenka rolled through the final set, 6-0, to punch her ticket to the French Open final for the first time in her career.
While it wasn’t an upset (Sabalenka was the slight pre-match favorite) it was still a bit of a surprising result simply because of how dominant Swiatek has been on clay since turning pro. Swiatek’s record at Roland-Garros is staggering, as she won 26 consecutive matches dating back to the 2021 quarterfinals and had just two losses all-time at the French Open entering Thursday’s semifinal. Swiatek has also struggled on the whole in 2025 as she is still without a singles title and has only reached one final in any tournament.
The French Open title streak is now over and Sabalenka will be surging with confidence going into the final against either 2-seed Coco Gauff or the tournament’s Cinderella story, French qualifier Lois Boisson. It is Sabalenka’s fifth grand slam final in her last six appearances as she is one step closer to a fourth major title and the third leg of the career grand slam.
