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Coco Gauff and Aryna Sabalenka's French Open final

ROLAND GARROS, PARIS — Only in sports, and probably only in tennis, would a Black girl raised in Florida and a White girl raised in 5,500 miles away in Minsk grow up to collide in Paris, chasing one another’s dreams. And here they are, Coco Gauff and Aryna Sabalenka, coming into Saturday’s French Open final […]

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1 month ago

June 6, 2025

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Coco Gauff and Aryna Sabalenka's French Open final

And here they are, Coco Gauff and Aryna Sabalenka, coming into Saturday’s French Open final as the two best players in the world. Both are the hunter and the hunted. Both have a hammer lock on what the other one wants a piece of. And roughly two hours of tennis between the most aggressive force and the most premier counterweight in the women’s game will serve as the next marker for whether either one can make any headway on their missions.

“Too good” was how Gauff described the world No. 1 last month, after Sabalenka beat Gauff in straight sets to win the Madrid Open. She found similar praise Thursday evening, after booking her appointment with Sabalenka in a clinical, straight-sets defeat of Loïs Boisson. It ended the French wild card’s fairytale ride through the draw.

“She’s someone who has great big shots, and she’s going to come out aggressive,” Gauff said of Sabalenka.

“I just have to expect that and do my best to counter that.”

Sabalenka used similar words with a different timbre when discussing the prospect of another tussle with Gauff, their first in a Grand Slam final since 2023, when Gauff got the better of her at the U.S. Open. Sabalenka led that match by a set and 15-40 on Gauff’s serve, before the American — and 24,000 fans inside Arthur Ashe Stadium — put Sabalenka through the wringer.

“I have to work for that title, especially if it’s going to be Coco,” Sabalenka said after ending Iga Świątek’s three-year reign as the queen of Roland Garros Thursday afternoon.

“I’m ready to go out, and I’m ready to fight. And I’m ready to do everything it’s going to take.”

Sabalenka has her reasons for that, beyond jumping at her first chance to win a Grand Slam win not on a hard court.

Gauff’s mission may be more straightforward. Winning this tennis match and the French Open is an end in itself. Sabalenka is No. 1; Gauff would like to be there. Winning Saturday would be a start in closing the roughly 4,000-point gap between her and Sabalenka’s perch at the top of the mountain.

Sabalenka has three Grand Slam titles to one for Gauff. Sabalenka has become a force of nature, landing in the final of six tournaments this year and winning half of them. That is a consistency and an efficiency that Gauff has only begun to approach for this year in the past two months, making the final at the Italian Open to go with the one in Madrid and the one she will play Sunday in Paris.

Sabalenka’s mission is more complicated, because a win could push her toward something less tangible: Gauff’s level of stardom. In that arena, the gap between the players is as wide, if not wider, than the chasm atop the WTA rankings.

Understanding that requires understanding the alchemy that causes someone to become not only an all-time great tennis player, but also a star beyond the 2,800 square feet of the court court. It means capturing the love and adoration of fans of tennis and sports and popular culture, in ways that are often hard to explain.

Gauff accomplished that almost as soon as she beat Venus Williams on Centre Court at Wimbledon six summers ago, when she was 15. Life has been a series of billboards, magazine covers and walks on red carpets, including at the Oscars in March, ever since.

Being an American helps, but is hardly a guarantee. Being from Belarus, which has helped Russia and Vladimir Putin in its invasion of Ukraine, presents a serious obstacle. Sabalenka has been trying to overcome that — and the others that are far less concrete and explicable — for several years now, as she has scaled the rankings and worked her way into the hearts and minds of fans and non-fans alike.

It’s the battle Novak Djokovic spent nearly his entire career fighting as he tried to gain the same level of adulation that Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal received. In some ways, he still fighting it now, as Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner try to make the sport their own and gather a new generation of eyeballs and suck up its oxygen.

Sabalenka let cameras follow her for an episode of the since-cancelled Netflix tennis series “Break Point.” She regularly posts Tik Tok videos of herself dancing in stadium corridors and hotel rooms. She fired her long-term representatives at IMG, the sports and entertainment conglomerate, because, as two people briefed on Sabalenka’s departure from the agency told The Athletic, Sabalenka grew frustrated with the disconnect between her standing in the sporting world and how potential deals were limited because of her nationality. The sources spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect their relationships in tennis.

“I was looking to build my brand, wanted a little bit more,” Sabalenka said at the Australian Open, shortly after she made the shift. According to Forbes, Sabalenka took home $9million (£7.2m) from endorsements in 2024. Świątek picked up $15m in the same period.

Gauff brought in $25m. She is, also according to Forbes, the highest-paid female athlete in the world. She recently fired her longtime agents, at Team8, to partner with IMG on Coco Gauff Enterprises, modeled on the kingdoms that Lebron James and Roger Federer have built.

The intangibles of renown and the tangibles of racket, ball and court necessarily interact, fuzzing into one another in an athlete’s mind. One of the challenges for Sabalenka and her coaches, Anton Dubrov and Jason Stacy, is focusing on the small things on the court, rather than big ones off it. They know what she is shooting for.

One of their mantras is “don’t fight it, don’t feed it.” In a news conference on Friday, Dubrov said he will remind her that the trajectory of her career and her life is composed of all the steps she takes on the court.

“Try to use it as fuel for you so it motivates you to do better,” he explained.

Stacy said they talk about how these big thoughts will pass through her mind during the tournament and the biggest matches.

“You’ll start thinking about, ‘Oh, you’re so close,” he said. “Just continue to be consistent in the way we act and how we speak and our mannerisms” is their formula for surviving it.

Gauff has her own techniques for keeping things small, something she learned from losing her first Grand Slam final here three years ago. It crushed her in the moment. Then she went out in Paris the next day and found most people barely acknowledged her as they went about her business.

“Everybody is dealing with way bigger things,” she said after beating Boisson.

Gauff came from a set down to beat Sabalenka in the 2023 U.S. Open final. (Tim Clayton / Corbis via Getty Images)

In their own ways, both players are telling themselves that this is just another tennis match. It happens to take place on the red clay of Roland Garros, a surface that wasn’t supposed to be all that friendly to the girl from Florida and the girl from Minsk. Americans don’t generally have a natural affinity for the patient, grinding style that clay generally imposes. But at 10, Gauff started training at Patrick Mouratoglou’s academy in the south of France for long stretches. The higher, slower bounce on clay is very friendly to her forehand; it helps her use her speed and her endurance to run down more balls.

Sabalenka has benefited from the patterns of the clay as well. That bounce and the extra time allows her to unload the most powerful forehand in the sport. Sure, it’s harder to get the ball through the court, but she has shown her power can overcome it, at least against players without Gauff’s athleticism.

She couldn’t overcome her at the U.S. Open two years ago, when she was taking on Gauff and her 24,000-strong crew in Arthur Ashe Stadium. The atmosphere shouldn’t be nearly that partisan on Saturday, though unless Gauff is playing an opponent on their home soil, she’s usually got a big chunk of the crowd behind her.

As the underdog, she should have that on Saturday, even when that underdog status only explains part of what makes some players draw more hearts and minds than others.

Gauff said she remembers very little of her last Grand Slam final showdown with Sabalenka. She described it as an “out of body experience.”

She has a vague memory of turning the match with a backhand cross-court passing shot in the second set. And she remembers running a lot. She also remembers somehow not being nervous.

“I woke up that day and I just felt like regardless of what was going to happen, I was going to come out with the win,” she said.

“You don’t always get that feeling when you go on the court, but I did that day.”

(Top photo: Julian Finney / Getty Images)

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Colin Cowherd on Radio Hall of Fame induction

Whether you’re a fan or not, Colin Cowherd’s influence on sports radio is undeniable. This year, the Fox Sports personality and former ESPN host will be honored in the Radio Hall of Fame’s Class of 2025. When the news of his Hall of Fame induction sank in, Cowherd didn’t hold back on how much it […]

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1 day ago

July 6, 2025

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Colin Cowherd on Radio Hall of Fame induction

When the news of his Hall of Fame induction sank in, Cowherd didn’t hold back on how much it truly means to him, despite his usually unflappable demeanor.

“It’s a huge deal. I don’t get terribly emotional about stuff,” Cowherd admitted. “I’ve seen everything now at this point. But my wife knows how much it means. My friends know how much it means. It’s a big deal for me. I don’t want to be congratulatory, but yeah, in my life, it’s been one of my goals.”

Cowherd’s phone buzzed nonstop with congratulatory messages from longtime friend Joe Fortenbaugh to former bosses alike. One notable exception was Danny Parkins, the Breakfast Ball co-host, who purposely held off, knowing he’d have the chance to congratulate Colin in person on The Colin Cowherd Podcast.

“You inspired people like Nick [Wright] and my generation to do radio,” Parkins said. “And then Nick and I would always joke…that you also kind of ruined the next generation of radio hosts, because people would try to be you. But your brain is so singular in terms of the analogies and the comparisons. It was an amazing thing. And then you would hear people try to be you and it’s like, ‘No, man, this is a one of one talent.’ You crushed it in TV and podcasting and all that, but it was made for radio.”

“You really deserve it. I don’t know how many more people in generations after you — if any — will have a big impact on the genre of radio, just because it’s changed,” Parkins continued. “There’s going to have to be a podcasting Hall of Fame. People younger than Colin Cowherd that made an impact in radio. It’s a short list, man. It’s just not as influential anymore, sadly. You’re probably one of the last radio titans. Other people will get in. They’ll keep inducting people. But in terms of people who meant more to the medium to you…you’re one of the last ones, man. You meant a ton to radio.”

And radio has meant a ton to Cowherd.

At 61, Cowherd began his broadcasting career as the play-by-play voice for the Las Vegas Stars, then the Triple-A affiliate of the San Diego Padres. After roles in Las Vegas, Tampa, and Portland, he joined ESPN Radio in 2004, taking over the late-morning slot with his show The Herd, quickly emerging as one of the network’s biggest stars.

Cowherd later hosted ESPN’s SportsNation from 2009-12. In 2015, he jumped to Fox Sports amid the launch of FS1, and unlike many peers, he has remained a steady presence for over a decade. Earlier this year, he signed a new three-year deal despite ESPN’s reported interest in bringing him back.

Part of the new contract involved moving his operations from Los Angeles to Chicago, which is conveniently close to the Swissôtel Hotel, where his Radio Hall of Fame induction will take place on October 30.

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Summer Superstar Series Ft Asaad Ali & Lance McGarvey

On this episode of the CSZ Podcast, coming to you live from the Shoot 360 Studios, Jeremy is joined in person by Joey & Shawn and we welcome our special guests in studio, Asaad Ali & Lance McGarvey! Today the guys talk to two of the best in the city! We welcome the voice of […]

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1 day ago

July 6, 2025

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Summer Superstar Series Ft Asaad Ali & Lance McGarvey

On this episode of the CSZ Podcast, coming to you live from the Shoot 360 Studios, Jeremy is joined in person by Joey & Shawn and we welcome our special guests in studio, Asaad Ali & Lance McGarvey!

Today the guys talk to two of the best in the city! We welcome the voice of Louisville Basketball, Lance McGarvey & Louisville Baseball co…i mean videographer extroidinaire & son of the city, Asaad Ali! The guys talk about the upcoming Mens Baskteball season, TBT, grieving the loss of a father, Louisville Baseballs unforgettable run in the NCAA Tournament, Shawns love life, favorite Dad memories and much, much more! We also have Rapid Fire and much, much more plus our usual shenanigans! Another can’t miss episode!

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July 6, 2025

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Dalton Knecht Talks Lakers Summer League Opener Vs. Warriors

Dalton Knecht spoke with Lakers Nation’s Matthew Peralta about the Summer League opening loss to the Warriors in the California Classic. Join our LN YouTube Channel for perks like extra shows, input on content, badges and more! https://www.youtube.com/lakersnation/join Join us on Playback for our live stream of every game!: https://www.playback.tv/lakersnation Subscribe To The Lakers Nation Podcast! Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/lakers-nation-podcast/id1200202500 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5RvQfs2iFUWc0sFMdHaN7o?si=L6qBbuieQsqOP4fUvnzo5Q Subscribe to our NBA Front Office Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/NBAFrontOffice Subscribe To Dodger Blue: https://www.youtube.com/@DodgerBlue1958 Subscribe to Raptors Nation: https://www.youtube.com/@raptorsnationcom Help us continue to provide Lakers coverage and SUBSCRIBE: https://goo.gl/5AXSud Our MOST POPULAR Videos: https://goo.gl/k4Xvqq LakersNation.com on Social Media:…

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Ronny LeJeune, Founder & Director of Bayou Dog Sports Training Club

[embedded content] Chatting with Ronny LeJeune, found and director of a new dog sports training non-profit called Bayou Dog Sports Training Club. ⸻ Listen & Watch Find this episode and more: Spotify: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/the-tea-podcast/support YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheTeaPodcast ⸻ Sponsored By: Optimize Generator People – Power your home with confidence during any outage. […]

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3 days ago

July 4, 2025

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Ronny LeJeune, Founder & Director of Bayou Dog Sports Training Club

Chatting with Ronny LeJeune, found and director of a new dog sports training non-profit called Bayou Dog Sports Training Club.

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Brad Pitt shares love of making sports movies on 'New Heights' Podcast

If you consider yourself a fan of Brad Pitt’s acting, particularly in sports movies, you’re in luck. He loves making them and wants to do at least one more. Pitt appeared on the New Heights Podcast, hosted by Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce and his brother, former Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce. During […]

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3 days ago

July 4, 2025

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Brad Pitt shares love of making sports movies on 'New Heights' Podcast

If you consider yourself a fan of Brad Pitt’s acting, particularly in sports movies, you’re in luck. He loves making them and wants to do at least one more.

Pitt appeared on the New Heights Podcast, hosted by Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce and his brother, former Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce. During the appearance, Pitt discussed his fondness for sports movies.

“I love a sports movie when they work … It’s the greatest,” Pitt said, H/T Lexi Carson, The Hollywood Reporter. “I look back at Gene Hackman and Hoosiers and [Robert] Redford and The Natural, there’s even something more. Sports for me, even one game is an entire lifetime.”

During the conversation, Pitt discussed his most recent movie, F1, as well as 2011’s Moneyball, when he portrayed Billy Beane, general manager of the then-Oakland Athletics.

“When we get it right in these sports movies and I felt like we really got it right in Moneyball in a lovely, beautiful way to add to that lexicon,” he said. “I think this one does too on a really big level because the racing is probably the most visceral racing experience you’ll ever have. But like all great sports movies, when they’re great, there’s also a story there. You’re moved by it. And were funny as f***k. So, we got that to deliver it, but this kind of spiritual ending to it all, I’m really proud about.”

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The Top 25 Michigan athletics moments since 2000

We’ve reached the “I’ll never forget where I was when X happened” stage of our series covering the Top-25 moments for the Michigan Wolverines since 2000. For the No. 5 spot — one of the most iconic finishes in the history of the men’s basketball program that triggered a run to the national championship. 5. […]

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4 days ago

July 4, 2025

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The Top 25 Michigan athletics moments since 2000

5. Jordan Poole drills mid-court buzzer-beater to stun Houston in the NCAA Tournament (2018)

3. Jordan Poole, 2018 vs Houston.

Michigan’s tournament run seemed over. Until Poole caught the ball with under a second left, fading away from 30 feet.

The shot launched Michigan to the Final Four and Poole into March Madness immortality. pic.twitter.com/cEeWvAqQ0t

— TJ Ross (@TJRossSF) March 22, 2025

I can watch this clip over and over again. Every March, it’s appointment viewing on social media as fans lament on the madness of the NCAA Tournament.

Michigan was dead to rights in this game. The starters were 15-of-43 (34.8 percent) from the field and 3-of-19 (15.7 percent) from deep. With 10 seconds left, Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman missed a layup, and Houston’s Devin Davis went to the free throe line up by two points with four seconds remaining. He was 9-of-10 from the free throw line, but proceeded to miss the two most important ones with the pressure of the game on his back.

Head coach John Beilein called a timeout and rallied the boys for one final play, a play that they practiced multiple times, putting the game on the back of true freshman Jordan Poole. The Milwaukee-native averaged only six points per game and had played only 11 minutes in what could have been the final game of the season. Instead, with the game on the line, he drilled one of the most memorable shots in the history of Michigan hoops.

By itself, this moment is worthy of a Top-10 ranking, but the Wolverines didn’t stop there. Thanks to Poole’s shot, Michigan became the highest-seeded team remaining in the West Region, as No. 1 Xavier and No. 2 North Carolina didn’t make the second weekend. The Wolverines would face both of their upsetters — No. 9 Florida State and No. 7 Texas A&M — in the next two rounds, vanquishing both on their way to the Final Four.

Michigan continued getting favorable draws, as No. 11 seed Loyola-Chicago inexplicably won the South Region (this was the year No. 1 Virginia fell to No. 16 UMBC in the first upset of its kind). Kentucky, a No. 5 seed, was the highest seed to even make the Sweet Sixteen in the region. Even with all the might of March Madness folk hero Sister Jean, Michigan beat the Rambles by double digits to advance to the National Championship for the second time in the Beilein era.

Unfortunately, the Wolverines ran into a buzzsaw in the Villanova Wildcats, the No. 1 team in the country. Despite doing an excellent job slowing down their starters — particularly AP Player of the Year Jalen Brunson — Donte DiVincenzo dropped 31 points off the bench on 10-of-15 shooting. After halftime, the game was never close.

Still, it was an improbable run from the Wolverines, who were unranked heading into that 2017-18 season. The run they went on was Cinderella-like, and they had to beat a couple counterfeits to solidify that. None of this happens if Poole didn’t hit that shot against Houston, and it is worthy of a Top-5 ranking because of everything that came next.

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