Elina Svitolina beat Coco Gauff 6-4, 6-7 (3-7), 6-2 in the Italian Open final on Saturday and left Rome with her third title at the tournament, her first clay-court trophy of the season and the sort of form that can reshape a Grand Slam draw in Paris.
The 31-year-old Ukrainian, who came back to the WTA Tour as a mum in 2023 after giving birth to daughter Skai in October 2022, is now one step closer to the French Open, which starts in Paris on May 24. Gauff, the reigning French Open champion, had arrived as one of the biggest names in the field, but Svitolina handled the moment better at the end, sealing her 20th career WTA singles title after a match that swung back and forth.
Svitolina had already done the hard work of the week before the final. She upset world No 2 Elena Rybakina and world No 3 Iga Swiatek before facing world No 4 Gauff, and she twice fought back from a break down in the first set to draw level at 4-4. That resilience has become a theme in Rome, and it now carries extra weight because she will go to Roland Garros having beaten one elite opponent after another.
“It was an extremely tough two weeks here. There were some big battles, big matches, late-night matches where I was going to bed at five in the morning,” Svitolina said after the win. She added that losing the second set was painful, but she reset and stayed mentally tough as Gauff kept pressing. The American took the tiebreak 7-3 to force a decider, only for Svitolina to close with a dominant third set.
The result also tightened a matchup that has quietly become one-sided. Svitolina now leads Gauff 4-2 and has beaten her in all three of their meetings in 2026, including earlier wins at the Australian Open and the Dubai Tennis Championships. Saturday’s final also gave Svitolina a 50th career top 10 win and extended her perfect record in clay-court finals to 8-0.
Rome was not new territory for Svitolina, who had already won the event back-to-back in 2017 and 2018. What is different now is the setting around it. She returned to the tour after becoming a mother and was unranked when she came back in 2023, a restart that has since turned into a climb back toward the game’s top tier. She is now world No 7, and the French Open will offer the next test of whether this run can turn into something bigger.
For Gauff, the loss ends a bid to defend her title in Paris with a second straight confidence-building clay-court trophy behind her. For Svitolina, the win adds another layer to a season that has already included some of her sharpest results in years. The only thing missing is the one title that still defines a career at the top of the sport, and she now heads to Paris with that chance very much alive.
