00:00That's right, so well, it's quite a difficult one to predict here, this final, a blockbuster final between a world number one, Irina Sabalenka, and world number two, Coco Goff, and as you said, one thing that we do know for sure is that there will be a first-time winner, it's the first time that Irina Sabalenka has reached a final here in Paris, while her opponent, Goff, was a runner-up in 2022, and it's quite hard to predict, as I said, they have five wins apiece out of their
00:29previous ten encounters, so potentially, most importantly, Irina Sabalenka won their last encounter on clay, that was in the final of the Madrid Open, Yabala Russian getting a straight set victory in that one, it is Goff, who is a more natural clay player, shall we say, she's very athletic, and she moves well on this surface, Sabalenka, on the other hand, has always been deemed as a hard-court specialist, she's known for her hard-hitting play,
00:59and her strength for all her grand slams so far have come on hard-court surfaces, but she's done very well to adapt her play on clay this year, she has been very successful this season on the surface, she, of course, beat the full-time reigning champion, Iga Swiatek, in the semi-finals,
01:21and she was very clever in that match, to ensure that she beat the clay quarter specialists, she kept the key points,
01:30they're very short and stifled, Iga Swiatek's game with very, very,
01:34very, very efficient returns on her serves, so Goff will know that she will have to be very,
01:39very strong in her defence today, if she is to go toe-to-toe with Irina Sabalenka, she'll have to be very strong defensively,
01:46to withstand Sabalenka's power, and draw her in in longer rallies, which is where she'll be weakest, Goff, of course,
01:54having finished a wild card, a French wild card, sorry, Louise Boisson's fairytale run in the semi-finals,
02:01she had to deal with, obviously, a crowd that was not in her favour, the French crowd very much in favour,
02:06for Boisson's, the Goff is showing a mental strength in that one to get through to the final,
02:11it was a comfortable win for her in the semi-finals, it has to be said, maybe Sabalenka having the slight edge,
02:17because this is her third successive Grand Slam final this year, absolutely remarkable consistency
02:23from the 27-year-old, last time that happened, that's a player in the women's game,
02:29reached three successive Grand Slam finals, well that was Serena Williams back in 2016, Will,
02:34but I think we can expect a close one here today, an entertaining game for this women's final.
02:39Right, and for the men, the semi-final took place on Friday, top-ranked Yannick Sinner beat Novak Djokovic
02:46in straight sets, Selena, Sinner has yet to drop a single set here in Paris, but Sunday he'll be
02:51facing the French Open defending champ Carlos Alcaraz, it's another great match-up.
02:58That's right, Will, again, it's the match that most tennis fans wanted and expected would be the final
03:05at Roland Garros as world number one, Yannick Sinner against world number two and defending champion
03:09Carlos Alcaraz. As you said, Yannick Sinner has looked unstoppable here this year, he's yet to drop a set,
03:16as you said. Hadn't really faced a challenge, shall we say, until last night against Novak Djokovic,
03:23but he won in straight sets, though it was a close game, but Sinner just proving to be too strong
03:28for Djokovic in the end, even though the Serb played a very high level of tennis to go toe-to-toe
03:32with the world number one, Yannick Sinner, just being more strong in the end against Novak Djokovic,
03:39who really took him to the very end, that third set going to a nail-biting tiebreaker,
03:44but the Italian yet to drop a set at Roland Garros, he's been very efficient, it's incredible to think
03:49that he only came back into tennis after a three-month doping ban not that long ago,
03:54and so he faces Carlos Alcaraz, who is a defending Roland Garros champion. Spaniard hasn't looked his
04:00best self at times, it has to be said, he has dropped some sets, he hasn't always looked fully
04:05concentrated in his matches, but one thing that we do know is that he's said it time and time again
04:09when it comes to facing Yannick Sinner, he ups his game, that's because of these two, this rivalry
04:15that's blossoming between the two is potentially going to be the one that fills a void of the big three,
04:20obviously Djokovic, the only one left of that generation, still playing tennis fans are hoping
04:25that their rivalry will be the next big rivalry here in men's tennis, and the pair, this is the
04:31first time they'll be meeting in a grandstand final actually, so a lot of excitement surrounding
04:34this match, the last time the pair met on clay was Alcaraz, who beat Yannick Sinner in the final
04:41at the Rome Open, so on home turf for Yannick Sinner, and Alcaraz does come out on top when it comes
04:47to the statistics, he has eight wins compared to four wins for Sinner, and most importantly,
04:53Carl Sarkaraz has won the last four times that the pair have met in game matches.
04:58All right, Selena, thank you very much. Selena Sykes reporting from Roland Garros.
