Jasmine Paolini will face Coco Gauff for the Interazionali BNL title of Itaali in an Italian confrontation against American after having progressed Thursday in the respective semi-finals in Rome.
Paolini, the sixth seed, beat the American Peyton Stearns 7-5, 6-1 to become only the third Italian woman to reach the final of her national open in the open era. Sara Errani lost in the 2014 final and Raffaella Reggi was the last Italian to win the trophy in 1985.
In the latest glass, the fourth seeded Gauff survived the eighth seeded Qinwen Zheng of China 7-6 (3), 4-6, 7-6 (4) to become the first American woman since 2016 to reach the Rome final.
Paolini may have the crowd of the house on its side, but its path through the simple draw was not easy. She defeated the head of N ° 17 Jelena Ostapenko from Latvia in the round of 16 before winning a three set against the Russian seeded Diana Shnaider in the quarter -finals.
Against Stearns, Paolini saved 5 of the 7 break points and won 21 of the 32 points in the second return (65.6%).
“I try to be in the state of mind that last year was an excellent year, but it gives me a lot of confidence,” said Paolini, 29, whose only WTA 1000 title came to Dubai in 2024. “I have to remember, a lot of experience I have … To my credit. At the same time, this year is another year. It is a completely different story.”
Gauff’s victory over Zheng lasted three hours and 32 minutes.
After Gauff won a SET victory in the first equality break, Zheng checked the second set. The China player led 3-0 and 4-1 before hanging on to win the set and even the match.
Zheng and Gauff exchanged tracks in the third until Zheng put an advance of 5-3 and served for the match. Gauff made sure that his opponent would lose this match, then held the service to attach it to 5-5.
In the possible equality break, Gauff fell behind 2-0 before running with four consecutive points and soon ending the work.
“I was just trying to go for each point,” said Gauff. “I knew before it was a physical match. The last time we played was more than three hours.
“Overall, I’m just happy. It was not at all my best level, to be honest. Just happy to go through and to another final.”
Gauff has not won a title since the WTA final last November. The 21-year-old lost the Madrid Open final against the world n ° 1 Aryna Sabalenka of Bélarus earlier this month.
– field level media
