Coco Gauff outlasted Qinwen Zheng in a marathon three-setter to earn a place in the Italian Open final.
The match started on Thursday evening, but finished in the early hours of Friday, with the World No. 3 emerging victorious after three hours and 32 minutes of play.
Gauff was emotional after coming through 7-6(3), 4-6, 7-6(4), and she let out a roar as the final point was won, thumping her chest and yelling at the crowd.
Cameras appeared to catch her screaming: ‘Don’t play with me! This my s***!’ as she celebrated on the court.
The 21-year-old star later shared footage of the moment she won on social media, captioning the post: “3 hour and 30 mins, past midnight finish, all heart.”
With her semifinal effort, Gauff has become the first American to reach the showpiece in Rome since 2016, when Serena Williams beat Madison Keys in an all-American championship clash.
The match against Zheng was also the longest of Gauff’s career to date, and the longest on the WTA Tour so far in 2025.
“I was just trying to go for every point,” the American, who urged the crowd to ‘boo’ her a few days ago, said after her mammoth win.
“I knew before it was going to be a physical match. Last time we played was over three hours.
“Overall I’m just happy. Wasn’t my best level at all, to be honest. Just happy to get through it and through to another final.”
Gauff, who has hopes of ending her four-year drought on clay, had previously been 0-2 in the semifinals at the Italian Open, having never won a set in those matches.
She was nearly handed more heartbreak in the Eternal City, as Zheng was two points from becoming the first Chinese woman since Li Na in 2012 to play for the trophy.
Zheng turned around a final set that lasted more than 80 minutes on its own, from being a break down twice.
But after winning three games in a row from 3-2 behind, the World No. 8 dropped serve from 30-15 ahead, and following that, neither woman lost a point on serve to set the stage for a winner-take-all tiebreak.
Zheng was the first to capture a mini-break and led 2-0, but the Olympic champion’s accuracy faded as the clock moved past midnight — and Gauff’s resiliency shone through.
She went on to win seven of nine points from there to put herself through to her second consecutive WTA 1000 clay-court final.
Gauff admitted after the win that she felt both her and her opponent ‘struggled’ at times.
“The whole match for me, the court was so slow,” she said.
“Especially when the ball after like two games, they’re so heavy.
“This was my second night match. My first one was first round. I was playing someone with a completely different game style. Yeah, it was tough.
“I think we’re both struggling trying to hit through each other. I think in Riyadh we had a little bit more winners, aggressiveness.
“Today we were trying, but the ball wasn’t going anywhere.”
Gauff will face home favorite Jasmine Paolini in the Italian Open final on Saturday, May 17.
Paolini came from 4-1 down in the first set of her semifinal to defeat American Peyton Stearns 7-5, 6-1 in under one hour and 40 minutes.
She has become just the third Italian woman in the Open Era to reach the Internazionali BNL d’Italia final.
