Coco Gauff booked her place in the Italian Open final, following a gruelling three-set marathon with Qinwen Zheng.
The match went just over three and a half hours before Gauff emerged victorious over Zheng, taking the lead in their career head-to-head.
In search of her second title of the season, the American will now play home favourite Jasmine Paolini in the final.
Gauff and Zheng’s clash was the longest match in women’s singles at this year’s Italian Open, which didn’t seem to impress former Australian tennis player Rennae Stubbs, who weighed in on the result.
Rennae Stubbs says no semi-final should ever be at midnight
Despite the previous match on Centre Court between Jannik Sinner and Casper Ruud lasting just 67 minutes, the women’s semi-final between Gauff and Zheng went into the early hours of Friday morning.
Their match, which featured two tiebreaks over three sets, lasted a total of three hours and 32 minutes.
The scheduling didn’t go down well with Stubbs, who took to social media to voice her opinion.
The former world number one doubles player wrote on X: “No semi-final should be at midnight! Imagine if Sinner had been a long match!”
Coco Gauff’s three-set victory over Qinwen Zheng by the numbers
Zheng came agonisingly close on both the scoreboard and the stat sheet in her loss to the former US Open champion.
The Olympic gold medallist tallied 27 break points and won ten of them, compared to Gauff’s nine break points won from an available 17.
| Zheng | Stat | Gauff |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Aces | 2 |
| 4 | Double Faults | 16 |
| 53% | First Serve % | 58% |
| 51% | Win % On First Serve | 60% |
| 43% | Win % On Second Serve | 53% |
| 10/27 | Break Points | 9/17 |
| 0 | Tiebreaks Won | 2 |
| 70 | Receiving Points Won | 61 |
| 121 | Points Won | 135 |
| 18 | Games Won | 18 |
| 3 | Max Games Won In A Row | 3 |
| 7 | Max Points Won In A Row | 8 |
| 51 | Service Points Won | 74 |
| 8 | Service Games Won | 7 |
Gauff won a total of 135 points throughout the match, winning 74 on her service. Zheng took totals of 121 and 51, respectively.
The biggest difference between the two came in double faults, of which Gauff racked up 16, stacking up against the four from Zheng.
Despite her efforts, the world number eight ultimately fell to the 21-year-old, who became the youngest player since the inception of the Madrid Open women’s event (2009) to reach the final in both the Spanish and Italian capitals.
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