Serena Williams overcame illness to win her 20th grand slam title after beating Lucie Safarova in the French Open final on this day in 2015.
The American, who won her first major 16 years previously, beat Safarova 6-3 6-7 (2) 6-2 in a dramatic showdown at Roland Garros.
Williams, 33 at the time, was the clear favourite as the world number one and reigning US Open and Australian Open champion, but she had been struggling with illness prior to the final and revealed she almost withdrew from the match.
And she was then given a fright by Safarova, who was playing in her first grand slam final in the French capital.
Williams won the first set 6-3 and looked to be heading for a routine victory when she led 4-1 in the second.
However, the left-handed Safarova battled back to force a second-set tie-break, which she won comprehensively.
A major shock was on the cards when Safarova led 2-0 in the decider, only for Williams to show her prowess by winning six successive games and claim a third French Open title.
Williams said after the match: “Is it the most difficult grand slam I’ve ever won? For sure.
“When you have the flu your whole body aches. That’s kind of what I have been dealing with.
“Even now I just really don’t have any energy and I just want to go to bed.
“It’s been a nightmare 48 hours.”
She added: “I talked to all the doctors here and the physios here. I even told the physio, ‘I’m not sure I’m going to be able to play because this is just not looking good’.
It was her 20th grand slam singles title, which left her two behind Steffi Graf and four behind Margaret Court.
Williams went on to take her tally to 23, but history continued to elude her as she lost her last four grand slam finals, two at Wimbledon and two in the US Open.
In August 2022, Williams announced her impending “evolution” away from professional tennis and played what was expected to be her final match at the 2022 US Open.
Williams announced she is pregnant with her second child in May this year.
Sabalenka defeats Collins to set up Swiatek rematch
Aryna Sabalenka defeated Danielle Collins 7-5 6-2 to set up yet another meeting with Iga Swiatek at the Italian Open.
Having defeated Collins en route to the final of the Madrid Open, which she lost to Swiatek, Sabalenka repeated the trick with a straight sets win over the American in Thursday's semi-final.
And the Belarusian's reward will be an immediate rematch with Swiatek.
The duo have met 10 times, including in Madrid earlier this month, with Swiatek winning seven times and Sabalenka claiming three victories.
This will be Sabalenka's first appearance in the Italian Open final.
She is the sixth player, along with Simona Halep (2017), Dinara Safina (2009), Serena Williams (2013), Ons Jabeur (2022), and Swiatek (2024) to have reached the final of both Madrid and Rome in the same season.
Data Debrief: Perfect record
Collins is the only player against whom Sabalenka has registered six wins without a loss in WTA events, while only against Maria Sakkari and Elise Mertens does she have more wins in her career in such events (seven each).
The final will mark the fourth meeting on clay between Swiatek and Sabalenka as world number one and two, equalling Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova for the most meetings on the surface as the WTA's top-two ranked players.
Swiatek makes it back-to-back finals with Gauff win
Iga Swiatek is through to the Italian Open final for the third time after seeing off Coco Gauff 6-4, 6-3 on Thursday.
There was little to separate the two in the opening 50 minutes as they played to 4-4 before Gauff left an opening with back-to-back double faults, and Swiatek took full advantage.
The world number one broke Gauff’s serve four times, including in the fifth game of the second set to swing the momentum firmly in her favour after one hour 48 minutes on the court.
Swiatek has now reached back-to-back WTA 1000 finals after winning the Madrid Open earlier this month and could face Aryna Sabalenka for the title once more if the Belarusian gets past Danielle Collins in the other semi-final.
Data Debrief: Unstoppable on clay
Swiatek has now won 11 consecutive matches, and registered her 10th victory over Gauff in 11 meetings between the two - she has won all four matches against the American on clay.
Since the format’s introduction in 2009, Swiatek (40 per cent, 12/30) holds the highest percentage of finals reached from WTA-1000 main draws entered. Serena Williams (36.7 per cent, 18/49) is the next best in the format's history.
Since the WTA rankings were first published in 1975, Swiatek has become only the third player to reach multiple Italian Open finals as the WTA's number one, along with Serena Williams (three) and Monica Seles (two). She will be looking for her third Italian Open title on Saturday.
Paul sees off Hurkacz in seesaw quarter-final
Tommy Paul reached the semi-final of the Italian Open after pulling through a rollercoaster clash with Hubert Hurkacz on Thursday.
The number 14 seed downed Hurkacz 7-5, 3-6, 6-3 in the quarter-final, keeping his composure during his two hours and 43 minutes on the court.
After winning the first set, Hurkacz fought back to win the second, but the American was not out of the contest yet as he clawed back from 0-2 down early in the third.
He closed out the win in a dramatic fashion, fending off six break points while letting three of his own slip, to eventually set up a semi-final against Stefanos Tsitsipas or Nicolas Jerry on Friday.
Data Debrief: Into the final four
After beating Daniil Medvedev in the previous round, Paul has now won back-to-back matches against top-10 opponents for the first time in his professional career with his victory over Hurkacz.
Paul earned his 150th tour-level win to take him through to his third Masters 1000 semi-final, as he aims to become the first American finalist in Rome since Andre Agassi in 2002.
SportsMax is the Caribbean sports channel of choice, committed to providing sporting content of the highest quality to the Caribbean, delivered by a team of highly innovative, passionate and qualified professionals.
(876) 619-7629
digitalmedia@sportsmax.tv
