Elina Svitolina can now turn her attention toward winning a third Italian Open title after she produced a 6-4, 2-6, 6-2 victory over No. 4 seed Iga Swiatek in Thursday’s semifinal match in Rome.
The seventh-seeded Svitolina saved 11 of 16 break points and took advantage of 50 unforced errors by Swiatek to control the match.
Svitolina will face third-seeded Coco Gauff in Saturday’s title match. The American notched a 6-4, 6-3 victory over 26th-seeded Sorana Cirstea of Romania.
Svitolina won the title in Rome in both 2017 and 2018. The Ukrainian defeated Simona Halep of Romania on each occasion.
“It’s amazing, the feeling,” Svitolina said oncourt just minutes after completing the semifinal victory. “It’s unreal after so many years to be here in the final. It’s such an amazing feeling to do it in just a great way.”
Svitolina knocked off No. 2 seed Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstain in the quarterfinals before eliminating Swiatek. She saved 16 of 20 break points while stunning Rybakina.
A victory over Gauff would make three top-four wins in three matches.
Svitolina had just 20 winners Thursday but her 35 unforced errors were 15 fewer than Swiatek of Poland. Though hurt by six double faults, Svitolina converted 6 of 9 break points while winning in two hours and 14 minutes.
It is the second time Svitolina beat Swiatek this season. She posted a three-set quarterfinal win at Indian Wells in March.
Svitolina is 3-2 all-time against Gauff, including two victories this season.
Svitolina beat Gauff in straight sets in the Australian Open quarterfinals and also beat her in three sets in the Dubai semifinals. The final will be the first time the two will meet on a clay surface.
“We played many times so nothing is a surprise,” Svitolina said of Gauff. “We both know how we will bring the fight.”
Gauff reached the Italian Open title match last season before losing in straight sets to Jasmine Paolini of Italy.
She had an easy time knocking off Cirstea, winning in just 75 minutes. It was the first time Gauff beat Cirstea in straight sets in four career meetings.
Gauff won 74.4% of her first-serve points (29 of 39) and converted 5 of 6 break points.
“In those bigger points, I was able to be more steady and make it physical, not let her dictate,” Gauff said of Cirstea on the Tennis Channel. “When you let her dictate, it’s really hard. I think my first-serve percentage (78%) was pretty high, so that was pretty important.”
Cirstea, 36, has stated that she will retire after this season. The match with Gauff was just the fourth 1000-level semifinal of her career.
But she delivered one of the biggest moments of this tournament with a third-round upset of top-seeded Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus.
–Field Level Media
