ROME — Coco Gauff reached her first final at the Italian Open with a gritty win against Zheng Qinwen on Thursday in Rome.
In a match marked by wild momentum swings, Gauff battled past Zheng in a 7-6 (3), 4-6, 7-6 (4) marathon semifinal the lasted over three and a half hours.
She advances to face Jasmine Paolini, who became the first Italian woman in more than a decade to reach the final at her home tournament when she beat American Peyton Stearns 7-5, 6-1 in the other semifinal.
Gauff let a 5-3 lead slip in the opener but capitalized on Zheng’s double faults to edge a scrappy first set, which featured 35 unforced errors from both players.
Zheng hit back with an early break in the second to force a decider, but after failing to serve out the match, the Olympic champion faded in the final tiebreak.
The American held her nerve to book a second straight WTA 1000 final, following her runner-up finish in Madrid.
Paolini, the No. 5-ranked player in the world, had found herself a set and 4-0 down to Diana Shnaider in her quarterfinal match before storming to victory, and once again she had a slow start in the opening set before mounting a comeback.
“I am very happy, I don’t know what to say,” said Paolini, the first Italian to advance to the final in Rome since her doubles partner Sara Errani lost to Serena Williams in 2014. “It’s a dream to be here, it’s a dream to play in Italy, it’s a dream to be able to play the final.”
Any hopes of a quick start for Paolini were put to rest when Stearns jumped into a 3-0 lead amid muted applause from the home crowd, and the Italian soon found herself down 4-1.
Stearns looked comfortable and poised to take the opening set before Paolini clawed her way back as she saved set points to level it at 5-5, pumping her fist with a triumphant scream that got the crowd roaring again.
The comeback was complete when Paolini, having won four games in a row, took the opening set after more than an hour of play.
The momentum was firmly with Paolini as she broke Stearns for a fifth time to go 4-1 up in the second set and the deflated American had no answer as the Italian’s winners whizzed past her.
Stearns fired a forehand wide on match point as the crowd erupted and Paolini raised her arms in celebration.
“You gave me a boost because today it was a bit of an uphill start and I struggled at the beginning,” Paolini told the crowd. “Thank goodness you were there.
“We won this match together. Point after point I managed to fight, to turn it around, even if at the beginning I did not have a good feeling. But I am happy with the way I managed to turn this match around.”
On the men’s side, world No. 1 Jannik Sinner put in a ruthless display in the evening session to dismantle newly crowned Madrid Open champion Casper Ruud 6-0, 6-1 in the quarterfinal.
Sinner dropped only seven points in the opening set while he won eight games in a row before Ruud managed to get on the board.
Ruud even raised his arms in mock celebration when he finally won a game amid cheers from the home fans, but Sinner was in no mood to hang around as he wrapped up the match in 63 minutes to reach his first semi-final in Rome.
“I was feeling great on court today,” Sinner said. “I think we all saw that. My goal was trying to understand where my level is here in this tournament. It raised day by day, so I’m very happy about that.
“It doesn’t matter really, the result, but how I felt today was a very, very positive sign for me. … I think today everything worked very, very well. I was serving well and also returning well, moving great on the court.”
Sinner will next play American Tommy Paul, and the other semifinal will pit his Italian compatriot Lorenzo Musetti against Spanish third seed Carlos Alcaraz.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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