The French Open is one of the most tennis tournaments on the tour each year. It follows the Australian Open and leads right into Wimbledon, but there is one stark difference: The courts for the French Open are made of clay, creating a unique surface for players to adapt to.
American tennis players, both men and women, have struggled recently in the sport as a whole, but particularly at the French Open. The last championship for a men’s singles player from the United States came in 1999, while the last U.S. women’s singles winner came in 2015.
With a near-decade drought on the women’s side, let’s take a look back at the last time an American woman won the French Open.
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Last American to win French Open women’s singles title
The last American woman to win the French Open title at Roland-Garros is Serena Williams, who won in 2015. It wasn’t her last major win, but it was the final time she won the French Open.
Williams began the tournament as the No. 1 seed, having won the 2015 Australian Open. She beat Andrea Sestini Hlavackova in straight sets in the first round. Williams needed three sets in matches against Anna-Lena Friedsam, No. 27 Victoria Azarenka, and Sloane Stephens, losing the first set in each match but prevailing to the quarterfinals.
Williams blew past No. 17 Sara Errani in straight sets, only losing four games. She once again dropped the first set in the semifinals, this time to No. 23 Timea Bacsinszky. Williams won the second set 6-3 and the third 6-0 to make her third French Open final at the time.
She matched up with No. 13 Lucie Safarova. Williams won the first set 6-3, dropped the second 7-6 in a tiebreaker, and won the third 6-2. It was her third and final French Open title of her career.
Last American woman to make French Open final
Even though an American woman hasn’t won the French Open singles final since 2015, that doesn’t mean that there hasn’t been representation in the finals. The last American woman who made it to the French Open finals was Coco Gauff, who did it in 2022. She ended up falling to Iga Swiatek in two sets, 6-1, 6-3.
Sofia Kenin made the finals in 2020, as did Sloane Stephens in 2018. Three American women have made the finals since Williams won in 2015, but none of them were able to pull off the win.
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Last American woman to make French Open semifinals
Gauff has been the best American woman on clay in recent memory. She made it to the semifinals in 2024 but ran into the buzzsaw that is Swiatek on clay. Again Goff lost in straight sets 6-2, 6-4 to Swiatek, who went on to win the 2024 French Open.
