Sabalenka, the hardest-hitting player on the women's tour and the 2023 Australian Open champion, raced to a 5-0 lead with Stephens winning a total of just eight points.
With her own first serve wilting, Sabalenka, in complete freefall by now, missed another two set points at 5-4 on Stephens' serve before her opponent spectacularly levelled and then held to take it to a tiebreak.
The Belarusian, looking win a second Grand Slam trophy, managed to pull herself together at the last moment, clinching the first set on her fourth opportunity.
She cut down on the unforced errors in the second set but again Stephens battled back from 4-2 down to level before Sabalenka broke again to go 5-4 up and serve out the match.
I'm super happy with this win," Sabalenka said in comments given to women's governing body WTA after she refused to do a post-game interview for the second time in a row.
Persons:
Roland Garros, Sabalenka, Sloane Stephens, Kai Pfaffenbach PARIS, American Sloane Stephens, Ukraine's Elina Svitolina, Stephens, Karolos Grohmann, Ken Ferris, Pritha
Organizations:
U.S, REUTERS, American, WTA, Svitolina, Thomson
Locations:
Paris, France, Belarus, Belarusian, Ukraine