Coco Gauff beat the world’s best player, claimed her first French Open title, and then walked straight to the ball kids — trophy in hand. With the Coupe Suzanne Lenglen still gleaming in the Paris afternoon, the newly crowned 2025 Roland Garros champion gathered the young volunteers together, high-fived nearly all of them, pulled them into a group photo, and told them exactly what she thought: “You guys are awesome.”
The moment, captured and posted by the official Roland-Garros account on June 7, spread instantly across ESPN, Bleacher Report, TNT Sports, and Eurosport — the Bleacher Report clip alone drawing nearly 100,000 likes on TikTok within hours, partly because the ball kids couldn’t resist lifting the trophy themselves.
It arrived at the end of one of the more gruelling women’s finals in recent memory. Gauff, 21, came from behind to defeat World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka 6-7(5), 6-2, 6-4 — a comeback that took 2 hours and 38 minutes and required her to reset completely after losing a first-set tiebreak she had led 4-1. She won 11 of the final 17 games and struck only 30 unforced errors to Sabalenka’s 70. “This one is heavy,” Gauff said of the Coupe Suzanne Lenglen. “It feels great to lift it.”
The victory gave Gauff her second Grand Slam singles title — following her 2023 US Open triumph — and made her the first American woman to win at Roland Garros since Serena Williams a decade ago. At 21, she is also the youngest American to claim the Parisian title since Williams’ first French Open crown in 2002. Her head-to-head advantage over Sabalenka now stands at 6-5, including a 2-1 record in Grand Slam finals.
The ball kids moment carries weight that transcends feel-good content. Gauff has spoken repeatedly throughout her career about the responsibility she feels as a role model — to young athletes, to young Black women in sport, to anyone watching from a place of aspiration. “I know I have that support and whatever happened, I wanted people watching me to know that I was genuinely trying my best,” she said before the final. Stopping for the ball kids — unscripted, unhurried, trophy already in hand — was that principle made visible.
She won her first Roland Garros title as a 14-year-old in the juniors, in 2018, and returned as a finalist in 2022 only to lose in straight sets to Iga Swiatek. She drew on both memories to get through Saturday. Next, Gauff heads to the grass, where she first announced herself to the world at Wimbledon in 2019, beating Venus Williams at age 15. She carries a career-high World No. 2 ranking and a second Slam to her name.
The ball kids get a group photo with the French Open champion. Gauff gets the title she always wanted. Not a bad Saturday in Paris.
