For the first time since 2021, the French Open women's final will be without Iga Swiatek. On Thursday, top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka continued her clay-court dominance with a three-set victory over Swiatek, who was hoping to become the first woman in the Open Era to four-peat at Roland-Garros.

Because of how different clay court tennis is stylistically from hard court or grass court, the French Open lends itself to dominance by players that have mastered that surface. On the men's side, we saw Rafael Nadal lord over the clay for nearly two decades,