CNN
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Jasmine Paolini beat Coco Gauff 6-4, 6-2 in the Italian women’s singles final on Saturday, becoming the first Italian to win the tournament in 40 years, repeating his feat in Sunday’s doubles final.
By doing so, Paolini became the first woman since Monica Ceres in 1990 to win both singles and doubles titles at the Italian Open, and the first such player in the WTA 1000 Series tournament since the Indian Wells’ Bellasvonareva in 2009.
With Italian President Sergio Matarera attending a match with Goff, Paolini saved the energy of the home crowd and saw the class above her opponent to claim it was the biggest victory of her career.
“That doesn’t seem to be true to me,” the 29-year-old said according to the Associated Press. “I came here as a kid to watch this tournament, and won it and lifted this trophy, and it wasn’t even in my dream.”
Neither player could hold serves in the first three games, but Paolini took a 3-1 lead in fourth place and took command for the rest of the set.
The Italians broke their opponent twice at the start of the second set, taking a 3-0 lead, and Gouf broke.
However, Paolini reestablished a three-game lead in the next game, cruising for the rest of the set, eventually scoring a victory with a big serve at the second championship point, raising his arms at the celebration.
Parini, who finished runner-up at the French Open and Wimbledon last year, is the first Italian winner at the Italian Open since Rafaela Ledge won the women’s singles tournament in 1985.
The victory means moving to fourth in the world rankings ahead of the French Open, which begins on Sunday, May 25th.
“Maybe I could have provided better service and put more balls on the court,” said Gauff, which had 55 forced errors and seven double faults. “I definitely could have done it, but she played to win today and deserved to win.”
“It’s a double fault, and that’s what I know I have to improve,” she added.
Then on Sunday, Olympic champions Paolini and Sara Ellani came two times 4-0 and won the women’s doubles final 6-4, 7-5 against Veronika Kudermetova and Elise Mertens.
The world’s number one men’s world Jannik Sinner hopes to complete his first sweep of the Rome singles title when he faces Carlos Alcaraz later on Sunday. The last Italian to win the tournament was Adriano Panatta in 1976.