Coco Gauff began her French Open title defense with a straight-sets win, beating Taylor Townsend 6-4, 6-0 on Tuesday in Paris. The American fourth seed said the day had already gone sideways before she ever stepped on court.
Gauff said her team got into a mini car accident on the way to the Roland Garros site on May 26, 2026, after a pole that was supposed to go down did not. Police told the driver to go, she said, and the car ran into it. “You felt an impact, I spilled my juice all over the car,” Gauff said. She added that the car was not driveable after the collision and that her team had to arrange another way to get to the venue.
The 22-year-old said the disruption ended up helping her switch off from the match itself. “It was an eventful day, but whenever that happens it lets you not think about the match,” she said. That was not the only problem she faced before the first-round meeting with Townsend. Gauff said her dress got stuck before the match and her physio was in the bathroom trying to help her take it off.
The win kept Gauff moving through the tournament as the defending French Open champion after she beat Aryna Sabalenka in last year’s final. Sabalenka, the world number one, also advanced on Tuesday, beating Jessica Bouzas Maneiro 6-4, 6-2 in her opening match. She has held the top ranking for 84 weeks since replacing Iga Swiatek in October 2024.
That ranking battle gives these french open matches an edge beyond the usual Grand Slam pressure. Sabalenka leads Elena Rybakina by 1,255 points, but Rybakina still has a route to No. 1 if she reaches the semi-finals. Rybakina beat Sabalenka in the Australian Open final in January 2026, a result that keeps the top spot from feeling settled even now.
Sabalenka reached last year’s French Open final, which means the players most central to the women’s draw arrived in Paris carrying both recent history and unfinished business. Gauff’s opening-round result was routine on the scoreboard, but the path to it was anything but. For a defending champion, that can be the difference between a slow start and a telling one.
