Gauff Tennis: Coco Gauff Reaches Rome Final With 6-4, 6-2 Win
Coco Gauff moved into the Rome final with a 6-4, 6-2 win over Sorana Cirstea on Thursday, May 14, 2026, and gauff tennis now has her chasing a second straight title match in the Italian capital. The 22-year-old reached the championship round in back-to-back seasons, a run that only Venus Williams matched for an American in 1998-99.
Rome Final Run
Gauff needed 75 minutes to finish the semifinal and did it with sharp numbers behind the score. She served 78 percent, won 29 of 39 first-serve points, double faulted once and converted five of six break points.
That efficiency lined up with the way she handled the set scores. After taking the first set 6-4, she closed out the second 6-2 and never let Cirstea build the sort of pressure she had created in earlier rounds.
Cirstea’s Week in Rome
Cirstea, 36, entered the semifinal as the No. 26 player and had already beaten Aryna Sabalenka 2-6, 6-3, 7-5 in the third round. A victory over Gauff would have pushed her to a career-high No. 20 and made her the oldest woman in Open Era history to debut in the Top 20.
Instead, the loss ended that climb and sent Gauff onward after a tournament in which she had already survived two tight tests. She saved a match point in a 5-7, 7-5, 6-2 comeback over Iva Jovic and then beat Mirra Andreeva 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 after dropping the opening set.
Swiatek Or Svitolina Next
Gauff will face either Iga Swiatek or Elina Svitolina in the final, and the matchup brings a short list of recent history with it. She is 2-3 lifetime against Svitolina and 5-11 against Swiatek, though she has won the last four meetings with Swiatek.
She also arrives with a recent Rome loss in the background, having fallen to Jasmine Paolini in the 2025 final. Now she gets another shot at the same stage after a semifinal that showed cleaner serving and a faster finish than the comeback wins that got her there.
