Jasmine Paolini beats Coco Gauff in Italian Open final to become first home winner in 40 years
Jasmine Paolini beat Coco Gauff 6-4, 6-2 in the Italian Open women's singles final on Saturday to become the first Italian player to win the tournament in 40 years, before repeating the feat in the doubles final on Sunday.
In doing so, Paolini became the first woman since Monica Seles in 1990 to win both the singles and doubles titles at the Italian Open, and the first player to do so in any WTA 1000 series tournament since Vera Zvonareva at Indian Wells in 2009.
With Italian President Sergio Mattarella in attendance for the match against Gauff, Paolini fed off the energy of the home crowd and looked a class above her opponent to claim what is arguably the biggest win of her career.
'It doesn't seem real to me,' the 29-year-old said, per AP. 'I came here as a kid to see this tournament but winning it and holding up this trophy wasn't even in my dreams.'
Neither player could hold their serve across the first three games, but Paolini won the fourth to take a 3-1 lead and was in command for the remainder of the set.
The Italian then broke her opponent twice at the beginning of the second set to take a 3-0 lead, before Gauff broke back.
But Paolini remained composed, re-establishing her three-game lead in the very next game and cruising through the rest of the set, eventually clinching the victory with a big serve down the middle on her second championship point and raising her arms in celebration.
Paolini, runner-up at the French Open and Wimbledon last year, is the first Italian winner at the Italian Open since Raffaella Reggi won the women's singles tournament in 1985. She is only the fourth Italian winner overall since the tournament began in 1930.
The victory means she will move up to fourth in the world rankings ahead of the French Open, which begins on Sunday, May 25.
'Maybe I could have served better and put more balls in the court,' said Gauff, who had 55 unforced errors and seven double faults. '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,' she added.
Then, on Sunday, Paolini and Sara Errani, the reigning Olympic champions, twice came from 4-0 down to win the women's doubles final 6-4, 7-5 against Veronika Kudermetova and Elise Mertens.
Men's world No. 1 Jannik Sinner is hoping to complete a first ever Italian sweep of the Rome singles titles when he faces Carlos Alcaraz later on Sunday. The last Italian man to win the tournament was Adriano Panatta in 1976.
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