Three years after the Roland Garros organisers last declared a women’s match worthy of being called the best of the day in Paris, the total collapse of one half of the men’s draw and a fourth round between two of the three most successful active women’s players not named Williams finally allowed women to return to centre stage.
Finally ushered into the marquee night match on Monday evening, Aryna Sabalenka and Naomi Osaka traded nuclear ground strokes in an intense, high-quality slugfest before Sabalenka showed why she remains the best player in the world by elevating her level in the most important moments and marching into the quarter-finals with a hard-fought 7-5, 6-3 win.
This was primarily an important win for Sabalenka. By her stratospheric standards, she entered the French Open after poor form on clay this year. As ever, she finds her best level at the grand slams. She has now reached the quarter-finals of her last 14 tournaments. She will be heavily favoured to return to the final as she faces the 25th seed Diana Shnaider next. The winner will face the victor of the surprise second quarter-final between Anna Kalinskaya, the 22nd seed, and Maja Chwalinksa.
Osaka and Sabalenka are both 28, four-time grand slam champions and No 1 players, but their periods at the very top of the sport never overlapped. While Osaka won her last major title in 2021, it was not until 2023 that Sabalenka first tasted grand slam success.
This match plainly illustrated why Sabalenka has achieved greater consistency and longevity. The Belarusian has worked herself into such a well-rounded player and here she complemented her ultra-offensive shotmaking from the baseline by peppering Osaka with drop shots, exposing the Japanese player’s awkward forward movement, and confidently closing down the net. Osaka, by comparison, is still extremely uncomfortable at the net with minimal variation in her game. When she is not completely overpowering her opponent, she has little else to fall back on.
Still, Osaka should leave Paris encouraged by her progress. Things have been trending positively for her in recent months, with the Japanese player finally able to string confidence-building wins together over a series of weeks even without producing any spectacular results. “Honestly, I don’t really look at the result too much any more. I feel as long as I wake up every day and hit the ball and think I’m improving, that itself is a win. Obviously sometimes in the season, there are dips, highs and lows. But I think getting the furthest that I got so far in Roland Garros should hopefully be a positive result for me.”
Since the iintroduction of night sessions at Roland Garros in 2021, the tournament organisers have been defiant in their response to sustained criticism for their refusal to include women as the featured night match. The last one was the fourth round between Sabalenka and Sloane Stephens in 2023. “I think it’s really important that they put our match today as a night session,” said Sabalenka.
“I think that’s the right move. I think the atmosphere and the attention that this match brought gonna show them that probably for the future they should consider putting at least sometimes woman matches at night. So I hope that this is the beginning, today’s match. It’s like we open up that door for woman night sessions.”
Osaka entered the court with another statement outfit, wearing a floor length translucent skirt for the walk-on underneath her shimmering gold dress that was even more eye-catching under the lights. For all the talk that Osaka’s elaborate outfits might somehow serve as a distraction, she has played quality tennis to reach the second week at Roland Garros for the first time in her career and she did so again early on. Osaka was the superior player in the first half of the opening set, backing up her precise serving with freedom off both wings.
However, Sabalenka worked herself into the match and further up the baseline throughout the opening set. She ended the set striking the ball at an incredible level, particularly her forehand, and in total control of the baseline. Once she had the initiative, Sabalenka refused to let go. Osaka spent much of the second set fighting hard just to keep hold of her serve until she broke down under the constant pressure imposed by the world No 1.
