When the sun rose Saturday morning, Italy hadn’t had an Italian Open champion in 40 years. By nightfall, it had one. In 24 hours, it might have two.
Jasmine Paolini, an irrepressible 29-year-old on a run for more than a year now, upset Coco Gauff in straight sets in the women’s final at the Foro Italico late Saturday afternoon, setting off a celebration unlike anything the Camp Centrale had experienced in decades.
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On Sunday, Jannik Sinner, the world No. 1, will take on Carlos Alcaraz and try to make it a perfect weekend for an Italian tennis machine that can do little wrong these days. The Italians are the Davis Cup champions and the Billie Jean King Cup champions. An Italian has played in each of the last five Grand Slam singles finals. Sinner has won three of them.
And now, thanks to Paolini, they are on the precipice of holding both Rome titles. In front of her parents, the Italian president, and luminaries from Italian tennis, including 2015 U.S. Open champion Flavia Paennetta, Paolini rode the roars of 10,000 fans to a level of glory that would have been unimaginable for her a year and a half ago, when she seemed destined to a fine career as a middling tour player.
Not anymore.
“Incredible!” Paolini said with the trophy in her hands after the 6-4, 6-2 victory.
🏆🇮🇹 pic.twitter.com/fKGBswxnyA
— Jasmine Paolini (@JasminePaolini) May 17, 2025
Gauff was off from the start, struggling to land half of her first serves. Even if she had, it’s hard to imagine her beating Paolini, who played a nearly perfect match.
She broke Gauff’s serve early in both sets. She stepped in and pounded Gauff’s second serve, pushing her deep in the count and onto the defensive. She smacked her own serve with her signature violent spin that drew so many errors off Gauff’s strings. Gauff even struggled on her backhand, which is one of the best in the game.
Most impressively perhaps, Paolini out-Coco-ed Coco, outlasting her on many of the long rallies. Gauff’s ability to defend and make her opponent hit one extra ball, and then another, so often wears them down and wins her points that she shouldn’t have won. Paolini did that Saturday.
Gauff saved a first match point with a fierce backhand down the line. But Paolini ended the next one on with a big serve down the middle, and then her arms spread wide and she was dancing and spinning all across the red clay of the center court in the Italian capital. It doesn’t take much for the bubbly Paolini to smile, but this was as big as a smile gets.
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Italian tennis has its king in Sinner. Now it has its queen in Paolini.
For Gauff, it was a second consecutive defeat in a WTA 1000 final, the level just below a Grand Slam. Aryna Sabalenka beat her in the Madrid final two weeks ago. In that match, Sabalenka simply overpowered Gauff.
In this one, Gauff faced two opponents — a stellar and clean Paolini, and a fervent crowd that didn’t go out of its way to disrupt her but smothered her with a wave of noise after every Paolini point.
Gauff, 21, has experienced so much in the six years since she became a mainstay of the tour. But this seemed like something new. She’s often the crowd favorite, and she wasn’t anything close to that on Saturday. That may have contributed to her 33 unforced errors on her forehand, seven double faults and three breaks of her serve in the second set.
Gauff headed off the court for a break after the first set, but came out and lost her serve in the very first game. Paolini rolled from there.
“Incredible person and player,” Gauff said of Paolini on the awards stage. She wished her luck in Sunday’s doubles final, which Paolini will try to win, too. “I wanted to take the trophy home today,” she added. “Hopefully, I can take the big trophy home next time.”
Paolini, Gauff and most of the rest of the other top players will now head to Paris for the French Open, the year’s second Grand Slam. Gauff will enter as the world No. 2. With the victory, Paolini vaults to No. 4, one spot ahead of Iga Świątek, the four-time Roland Garros champion.
Świątek may rule Paris. On Saturday, Paolini ruled Rome.
(Photo: Dan Istitene / Getty Images)
This news was originally published on this post .
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