Coco Gauff is through to the semifinals in Rome, but she had to earn every inch of it.
The world No. 3 survived one of the tensest finishes of her season Tuesday at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia, needing five match points to put away No. 8 seed Mirra Andreeva in a 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 quarterfinal that stretched well beyond the scoreline. It marks the fourth time she has reached the Rome semifinals and her third of 2026, following runs in Dubai and Miami.
Up next for Gauff is Sorana Cirstea, the 36-year-old Romanian veteran who has announced 2026 as her final professional season — and who is somehow playing some of the best tennis of her career. The two have already met twice this season, including just last tournament. She leads that matchup, but Cirstea’s form and farewell-season motivation make the semifinal anything but a formality.
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Gauff Finds Her Footing
The first set belonged to Andreeva. The 19-year-old Russian arrived with a disciplined plan— absorb her power, redirect to the corners, and let the American’s aggression become a liability. It worked. Andreeva earned two breaks of serve and closed the set with 10 winners against just seven unforced errors — a near-flawless performance from the baseline.
Gauff, meanwhile, was pulled repeatedly to the net by Andreeva’s well-placed drop shots and found her deep groundstrokes weren’t landing cleanly. She posted seven winners but paired them with 10 unforced errors, struggling to find a rhythm against an opponent who refused to engage on her terms.
Gauff Turns the Match Around
The second set swung decisively in her direction. She raced to a 3-0 lead behind an early break and never looked back. Where the first set featured sharp net exchanges, she settled into the baseline, hit her spots and finished with eight winners for the set. Andreeva’s composure visibly frayed — she recorded 11 unforced errors in the second set alone, at times appearing to rush between points as frustration mounted. She leveled the match and forced a deciding third.
The third set opened with early promise for Gauff. She broke, was broken back, then broke again to go up 3-1. From there, her speed and Andreeva’s mounting errors combined to push the lead to 5-1 — a double-break advantage that felt insurmountable. She appeared on the verge of her fourth career 6-1 set against Andreeva.
Then everything changed.
A Semifinal Earned the Hard Way
Andreeva refused to go quietly. She clawed back point by point, holding and converting in moments that shifted the energy inside Campo Centrale entirely. What had been a comfortable lead became a match on serve, and she found herself cycling through match point after match point without converting.
She needed five of them before Andreeva’s backhand down the line clipped wide, and the relief that washed over Gauff was immediate and visible. The final game alone lasted over 13 minutes.
The critical turning points in the third set illustrated just how close it came
- Game point at 1-0, 40-30 — Gauff breaks, levels at 1-1
- Game point at 1-1, 40-30 — Gauff breaks on fourth chance, leads 3-1
- Break points at 1-3, 30-40 and 40-advantage — Gauff holds, leads 4-1
- Five game points in the final game after saving four match points — Gauff wins on the fifth
Gauff’s Growing Legacy in Rome
The win extends Gauff’s head-to-head record against Andreeva to 5-0 and marks the second consecutive year she has eliminated the young Russian at the Rome quarterfinals. It also makes Gauff just the second player in the Open Era to record three or more comeback wins en route to the Internazionali d’Italia semifinals, joining Nathalie Tauziat, who did it in 1989.
It was her 15th semifinal at a WTA 1000-level event and her 10th three-set win of 2026, a figure that ties her with Andreeva and Jessica Pegula for the most on tour this season. She has also tied both players for the most comeback wins of 2026 with seven each — a number that keeps climbing the deeper she goes in Rome.
Source: WTA Tennis
