Resolute Gauff avoids Rome exit – but must improve

Reigning French Open champion Coco Gauff earned another confidence-boosting win on the clay by fighting back from match point down to beat ailing American teenager Iva Jovic in the Italian Open fourth round.

Gauff’s preparations for her Roland Garros title defence looked to be taking a significant blow as she trailed 7-5 5-3 against 18-year-old Jovic in Rome.

But the world number four, who also recovered from a set down to Argentina’s Solana Sierra in the previous round, survived the match point before ending up winning 5-7 7-5 6-2.

Despite victory, Gauff knows she will have to play much better to match her run to the Italian Open final last year – and go anywhere near retaining the French Open, which begins on 24 May.

That point was emphasised when Iga Swiatek, a four-time champion at Roland Garros and three-time winner in Rome, brushed aside former world number one Naomi Osaka 6-2 6-1 in an impressive win.

Gauff, who won her second Grand Slam title by beating Aryna Sabalenka in last year’s Roland Garros final, was far from her best in a dramatic contest against Jovic, played in testing wind.

The noise of fighter jets overhead also disrupted the players.

“I’m just proud – Iva played really well, and the conditions weren’t the easiest. Everything was going on,” said Gauff, who will surely need to raise her level when she faces Russian eight seed Mirra Andreeva in the quarter-finals.

“Thanks to my team – their pep talk helped me mentally.”

Gauff’s main emotion might well have been pride, but her relief at avoiding another early clay-court exit – after losing in the Stuttgart quarter-finals and Madrid last 16 – was also evident.

Struggling with her footwork and misfiring with her forehand, Gauff was way short of her best in the opening two sets.

But, after Jovic missed a match point with a tight forehand into the net, the 17th-ranked teenager became further distracted by a cut on her finger caused by an earlier fall on the red dirt.

Gauff took full advantage, showing the indomitable spirit that has defined her ascent to the top of the women’s game.

A flustered Jovic was clearly feeling uncomfortable with her grip, and it contributed to a host of errors as Gauff – who has said she is dealing with “tough” off-court issues at the moment – quickly turned the second set in her favour.

Gauff still did not play cleanly in the decider, but knew the importance of simply getting the ball back into play with regularity and preying on Jovic’s problems.

Jovic, who reached the Australian Open quarter-finals earlier this year, continued to hit loosely, and her first serve plummeted – as the pair exchanged five breaks of serve – before Gauff steadied herself to win the final three games.

“In my previous round, I was not good mentally on the court, and this was a complete 180. It shows I can continue to be positive in the most part,” Gauff told Sky Sports.

Later, Poland’s Swiatek, who has teamed up with Rafael Nadal’s former coach Francisco Roig in an attempt to ignite her season, looked far closer to her best as she outplayed Japan’s Osaka.

Swiatek has not won a title since September last year, but applied relentless pressure to Osaka, who has rarely looked at home on the clay during her career.

She broke the Osaka serve six times but had another seven break point opportunities, with Osaka winning less than half of the points in her own service games.

Swiatek will play fifth seed Jessica Pegula next after the American beat Anastasia Potapova 7-6 (8-6) 6-2. They are on the opposite side of the draw to Gauff.

In the same section is the second seed, Elena Rybakina. She was similarly impressive in beating former world number one Karolina Pliskova 6-0, 6-2 in 58 minutes to set up a meeting with Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina.

In Gauff’s half, Sorana Cirstea, who knocked out world number one Sabalenka in the last 32, continued her good run by beating Linda Noskova to set up a meeting with former French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko.

Clinical Sinner continues to look unstoppable

In the men’s draw, Italian world number one Jannik Sinner continued his bid for a clean sweep of the ATP Masters titles with a routine victory in the third round.

Sinner, 24, cruised to a 6-2 6-0 win over Australia’s Alexei Popyrin in little over an hour as he looks to land the Rome trophy for the first time.

More significantly, winning his home tournament will see Sinner become only the second man after Novak Djokovic to claim all nine Masters titles – the tier of events below the four Grand Slams.

Sinner has won the past five Masters tournaments, and another exhibition of clinical ball-striking against Popyrin extended his winning streak at this level to 30 matches – leaving him one behind Djokovic’s record 31-match run in 2011.

In this form, four-time major champion Sinner looks unbeatable. With the nearest rival, Carlos Alcaraz, injured and a host of other top seeds already out of the draw, it is difficult to see who will stop him.

The next player tasked with trying to deny Sinner’s bid for history is Italian qualifier Andrea Pellegrino, who has reached the last 16 of a Masters for the first time.

Before this week, 29-year-old Pellegrino had never played a Masters main draw, but the world number 155 continued his dream home run with a 7-6 (10-8) 6-1 win over two-time US Open semi-finalist Frances Tiafoe.

Continuing his run by beating Sinner would be a seismic shock, ranking among the greatest upsets on the ATP Tour.

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