A 41-year-old Grand Slam finals performance matched at Roland-Garros

After nearly two weeks of competition, we now know the matchups for the singles finals at Roland-Garros. In the end, the favorites held their ground in the Parisian Grand Slam. This Saturday, the women’s final will pit Aryna Sabalenka against Coco Gauff—a clash at the top between the tournament’s two highest seeds.

For the men, it’s the same story. World No. 1 Jannik Sinner will face his closest rival, Carlos Alcaraz, marking the first time these two young leaders of the new generation will meet in a Major final. Additionally, this will be the first Grand Slam final to feature two players born after the year 2000.

While these two weeks of competition have led to these two blockbuster matchups and the rankings’ logic has ultimately held true, it had been a while since the top two seeds in both the men’s and women’s draws reached the final in the same tournament.

In fact, this is the first time since the 2013 US Open (Djokovic-Nadal and Serena Williams-Azarenka) that the top two men’s and women’s players have held their rankings all the way to the final.

As for Roland-Garros, this feat hadn’t been achieved since 1984—41 years ago. Back then, John McEnroe and Ivan Lendl topped the rankings, as did Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova in the women’s draw. The performances of Sinner, Alcaraz, Sabalenka, and Gauff in this tournament have thus dusted off the history books a little.