ROME — Coco Gauff kept rolling through a difficult draw Thursday, beating Sorana Cirstea 6-4, 6-2 to reach her second straight Rome final.
The 22-year-old American needed 75 minutes to dispatch Cirstea, the 36-year-old ranked No. 26, and with the win became the youngest American since Venus Williams in 1998-99 to reach the Rome final in successive seasons. Gauff will face either Iga Swiatek or Elina Svitolina for the title.
The semifinal was the cleanest version yet of a tournament that has demanded plenty from Gauff. She served 78 percent, won 29 of 39 first-serve points, double faulted once and converted five of six break points. The result extended a run that already had included three comeback wins, a stretch that started with a 5-7, 7-5, 6-2 escape over Iva Jovic after saving a match point and continued with a 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 victory over Mirra Andreeva.
That resilience matters because Gauff has been living this tournament one tight set at a time. She said this week she needed to close sets better, noting that she has often built leads and let them slip. Against Cirstea, she said the key was protecting the advantage once she went up 5-4 in the opening set, and that winning the first set gave her room to keep control of the match.
Cirstea had entered the semifinal with her own story line. The Romanian was in what has been described as a planned farewell season and was chasing a second WTA 1000 final. A win 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. She had already knocked out Aryna Sabalenka in the third round, a 2-6, 6-3, 7-5 upset that showed she could still make life hard for top players.
Gauff’s path to another final also carries a sharper edge than a typical early-summer run. She lost to Jasmine Paolini in the 2025 Rome final, and the names waiting on the other side of the bracket are familiar ones. She is 2-3 lifetime against Svitolina and 5-11 against Swiatek, though she has won the last four meetings against either player. That gives her confidence, but not comfort, heading into a final that could again test how far her improved serve and steadier closing game can take her.
The final now comes down to whether Gauff can turn a week built on recovery into a title. She has already shown she can survive from behind. The harder part may be finishing when the score is even and the pressure is highest, the place where this tournament has asked the most of her and where the next match will likely be decided.
