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Coco Gauff (right) alongside her doubles partner Jessica Pegula
Photo:
THOMAS SAMSON / AFP
Kristina Mladenovic and Caroline Garcia have won the doubles competition at the French Open.
The French duo prevailed in the final 2:6, 6:3, 6:2 against the slightly favored Americans Jessica Pegula and Coco Gauff.
Gauff missed out on winning her first Grand Slam title again, although the individual is fundamentally much more important.
Gauff is 18 years old, has been considered one of the greatest tennis talents for years and wants to play for more big titles in the coming years.
Not only does she cause a stir with her style of play, Gauff also stands up for her political beliefs and wants to use her fame like basketball player LeBron James or footballer Colin Kaepernick to point out grievances.
Gauff was no longer disappointed with the lost individual final against Iga Świątek.
On Saturday she clearly lost in two sets against the new woman Merciless of the tennis scene and then shed many tears.
But the right-hander is a passionate doubles player, is tenth in the world rankings there and was agile and playful in the early stages of the match alongside her partner, who was ten years her senior.
The first break was achieved early on in the first set, but the two Americans were rarely in danger when they served themselves.
Garcia and Mladenovic rarely managed to force their opponents into long rallies in order to play to their advantage at the net.
Since their French Open victory in doubles in 2016, Garcia and Mladenovic have been crowd favorites in Paris, and in the previous rounds, "Allez les Bleus
"
chants could be heard again and again when the duo played.
Mladenovic could have won her fourth title at home, having triumphed alongside Timea Babos (Hungary) in 2019 and 2020.
The picture changed in the second set.
The two French returned better, took the first service game directly from Gauff and woke up the initially reserved audience on the Philippe-Chatrier court.
Pegula and Gauff seemed impressed, they now made more simple mistakes.
They fought their way back into the set, but Mladenovic and Garcia played out their doubles routine and won the round 6:3.
In this phase it was above all Mladenovic who moved outstandingly at the net and ended many rallies with her volleys.
Both Gauff and Pegula, who also lost to Świątek in singles in the quarterfinals, struggled on the first serve.
They had nothing more to oppose to the will and passion of the French women.
kra