Coco Gauff and Iga Świątek find similar progress in different results at Italian Open

After nearly a year of relative chaos for two of the best tennis players in the world, clay is providing some stability under their feet.

When the Italian Open women’s final gets under way on Saturday, one player very familiar with success at the biggest clay-court tournaments will be there, and the other, despite her absence, is closer than ever to being where she needs to be ahead of the biggest of them all.

Coco Gauff, the defending French Open champion, will be on one side of the net. Iga Świątek, winner of four of the previous five championships at Roland Garros, almost made it but fell in three sets to an inspired Elina Svitolina, who simultaneously redlined and scrapped to a 6-4, 2-6, 6-2 win over a version of Świątek who is close to the player she wants to be, but not yet sure of being it on the biggest points. Svitolina saved 11 of 16 break points against Świątek, after saving 16 of 20 to beat world No. 2 Elena Rybakina in the previous round.

Svitolina’s win sets up a rematch of one of the more compelling duels of the 2026 season. She and Gauff went for three hours and 3 minutes in the semifinals of the Dubai Tennis Championships in February. Gauff saved four match points to win an epic second-set tiebreak which ended 15-13, before Svitolina prevailed 6-4 in the deciding set. At the Australian Open, Svitolina surged past an early-season version of Gauff who, like Świątek, has been finding ways to get closer to the tennis she wants to play.

Svitolina is not-so-quietly putting together a stellar season. She defended the court about as well as a player could against Świątek, getting enough balls back in sludgy, slow conditions to tempt her into going for too much, the impulse Świątek has come close to quelling since working with Francisco Roig, a longtime coach of Rafael Nadal.

Still, with the temperatures rising and the clay settling six weeks into the annual swing, here are Gauff and Świątek, rounding into form at exactly the right time.

Both players spent a good bit of time since last summer in their own versions of the tennis wilderness, searching for the right versions of themselves. Both changed out a coach. Both struggled with the intestinal virus that swept through the Madrid Open and contributed to earlier-than-expected exits. Świątek in particular was less upset by going out than by an illness disrupting her right when she felt more in tune with her tennis.

Then they got to Rome, and started to pile up some wins.

“Definitely gives me a lot of confidence because I also played some players who are having great clay court seasons and great seasons in general,” Gauff said Thursday after beating the surging Sorana Cîrstea in straight sets in the semifinals. “I feel like my game is getting better. There’s moments that I still can fine-tune and do better at. I definitely think it’s in the right direction.”

That quality at this time of year shouldn’t be all that big a surprise, regardless of what came before it. Both Gauff and Świątek are sublime movers with the sort of speed and balance that works wonders on clay, keeping them in points long after others would have succumbed. Świątek has begun to find the revving, angular topspin that no one else on the tour can produce, while Gauff — who caught life from a blister which frazzled Iva Jović when Jović was a point from eliminating her in the round of 16 — has found stability and confidence behind her serve.

The shot, which was producing clusters of double faults not so long ago, has always been one of the most powerful weapons in women’s tennis when it goes in, and Gauff is starting to hit her first serve with more consistency and confidence. It’s the second one, though, that she is really feeling.

“First time in my career I feel like I’m really stable with that shot,” she said in a news conference. “I obviously don’t want to jinx anything, but I think we found the recipe to make it more consistent. Now it’s focusing on how to make it more of a weapon, how to serve smarter.”

Gauff began the tournament quick to annoyance, harrumphing her shoulders and smacking her face when she made errors. She spoke of off-court issues that were affecting her, and of needing to work on her attitude. And so she did, fist-pumping even when she made mistakes down the stretch of a tense quarterfinal win over Mirra Andreeva. Her forehand footwork and spacing still get in her way too often, but having only one of the most important shots in tennis to worry about is better than two.

Świątek hadn’t had too much to fuss about before Thursday. She will be bothered for not having made the final and won a tournament yet on the surface she largely owned from 2020-2024. She committed 50 unforced errors, which never feels good, especially the 24 in the first set which contributed to Svitolina’s 33 points won.

But she has mostly been in clay-court clinic mode. She had a tussle with a healthy and fast-improving Caty McNally in her opening match, but won the kind of match she had been losing the past few months. Then she was her old efficient self until that opening set against Svitolina, toiling in the chilly, heavy night conditions she and most clay-court savants despise.

She took a toilet break and returned to her usual self, spinning the ball high and hard to big targets. By some numbers, Świątek won the majority of the match, but still, she did not win it, despite having Svitolina on the ropes for most of the night. Svitolina earned 7 break points fewer than Świątek, but converted 6 of her 9. That was the difference.

“Unreal to be after so many years here again in the final and to do it in such a great way,” Svitolina said on the court when it was over.

Świątek had all but declared herself ready for Paris even before taking on Svitolina.

“The goal was to play as many matches as possible. I’m really happy that I just have opportunity to do that,” she said after thumping Jessica Pegula, 6-1, 6-2 in the quarterfinals for a first top-10 win in six months.

“It’s giving me confidence because you can practice as much as possible, but if you don’t test it out on the court, play matches and face pressure or something, you’re going to still feel a little bit rusty when it comes.”

She won’t have to worry about that when the French Open begins May 24. Neither will Gauff.

This article originally appeared in The Athletic.

Tennis, Women's Tennis

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