Jasmine blossoms on Italian clay

ROME — Jasmine Paolini got the party started at the Foro Italico, setting the stage for Jannik Sinner to cap off an already historic weekend.

Paolini took advantage of the crowd's support and beat Coco Gauff 6-4, 6-2 to become the first home player to win the Rome Open in 40 years on Saturday.

With the top-ranked Sinner due to play Carlos Alcaraz in the men's final on Sunday, Italy could earn its first-ever sweep of the Rome singles titles.

The last Italian woman to win the open was Raffaella Reggi in 1985 in Taranto. The last local man to lift the trophy was Adriano Panatta in 1976.

When Paolini hit a big serve on her second championship point and Gauff couldn't get it back, she celebrated with a big smile, raising her arms as she spun around in joy.

"It doesn't seem real to me," Paolini said.

"I came here as a kid to see this tournament, but winning it and holding this trophy wasn't even in my dreams."

Before the trophy ceremony, the crowd chanted: "Ole, ole, ole, Jasmine, Jas-mine." Paolini responded by forming her hands into a heart shape.

"The crowd has been incredible," she said.

Paolini, alongside playing partner Sara Errani, is also in the women's doubles final and will play Veronika Kudermetova and Elise Mertens for that trophy, too.

"It's been two incredible weeks, and it's not finished yet," Paolini said.

Monica Seles in 1990 was the last woman to sweep Rome's singles and doubles titles in the same year.

Rising through the ranks

With the country's tennis boom in full force, Italy President Sergio Mattarella attended the women's final on Campo Centrale.

Numerous fans held aloft Italian flags and they constantly shouted "Vai Jasmine" ("Go Jasmine").

The fifth-ranked Paolini was the runner-up at last year's French Open and Wimbledon, and led Italy to the Billie Jean King Cup title. She and Errani also won doubles gold at the Paris Olympics.

Paolini will move up to No 4 in the rankings on Monday, which will improve her position in the draw for the French Open, which starts next weekend.

At age 29, Paolini is achieving much more than she did earlier in her career.

"I played her a long time ago in Adelaide," Gauff said, referring to a match that the American won in 2021. "I remember her playing a little bit more of a passive game. Now she's more aggressive."

Indeed, despite her 1.63 meter stature, Paolini is able to produce powerful groundstrokes and she often outhit Gauff.

"Today was my best match of the week," she said, "and I needed that to beat Gauff."

Despite her success last year, Paolini recently made a coaching change, replacing Renzo Furlan with Marc Lopez. Errani is also almost always with her, too, and acts as an unofficial coach.

"She is capable of playing top-two, No 1-in-the-world tennis," Gauff said.

Gauff's costly errors

Gauff, the 2023 US Open champion, and who was ranked No 3, made a whopping 55 unforced errors to Paolini's 20 and hit seven double faults to Paolini's none.

Gauff was coming off the longest match of her career, a three-and-a-half hour victory over Zheng Qinwen in the semifinals that ended in the early hours of Friday morning.

"Maybe I could have served better and put more balls in the court," Gauff said.

"I definitely could, and can, but, she played to win today and she deserved to win. With the double-faults, it's something I know I have to improve."

It's the second time in two claycourt tournaments that Gauff has finished runner-up. She lost the Madrid Open final two weeks ago to Aryna Sabalenka.

Paolini also beat Gauff at a claycourt event in Stuttgart, Germany, in April.

Gauff was visibly livid with her performance, which started with a double fault and continued with sloppy shots throughout the match.

"Hopefully I can get to the final at Roland Garros and maybe the 'third time lucky' thing is a real thing," Gauff told reporters.

"I made the final with those errors. Made the final maybe not playing my best tennis. It just gives me confidence that, if I can find that good form heading into Roland Garros, I can do well there."

Gauff, who will nevertheless be world No 2 heading into the French Open, lost five of her nine service games and ended a poor evening's work with a failed service return attempt that handed Paolini, perhaps, the biggest win of her career.

Agencies