Four remain in Rome: Gauff, Zheng, Paolini and Stearns eye a spot in Saturday’s final

All things considered, Zheng Qinwen arrived in Rome with a disappointing early season in her wake.

After losing her first match in Madrid, the 22-year-old from China’s record was hovering just over .500 and her game lacked the sparkle that brought her the Olympic gold medal in singles last summer.

Zheng managed to win three straight matches at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia, but a fourth, given the history, seemed unlikely. She faced World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka in the quarterfinals, a player she’d lost to all six times they played. That, and Sabalenka was an ominous 6-0 against Top 10 players, while Zheng was 0-2.

But on Wednesday Zheng summoned a slice of excellence, defeating Sabalenka 6-4, 6-3 -- her best win of the year. Zheng has been a quarterfinalist in all three of her visits to Foro Italico, but this was the first time she advanced to the semifinals.

On Thursday, evening she’ll have the chance to avenge last year’s loss to Coco Gauff. No. 6 Jasmine Paolini meets unseeded Peyton Stearns in the first semifinal.

We make the case for the four semifinalists:

No. 4 Coco Gauff vs. No. 8 Zheng Qinwen (8:30 p.m. local, 2:30 p.m. ET)

Head-to-head: Gauff won both previous meetings against Zheng Qinwen (in Rome’s quarterfinals last season and in the championship match at the WTA Finals in Riyadh last year).

The case for Gauff: Only 17 months separate these two players, but when they met in the quarterfinals here a year ago, the younger Gauff was the more mature player, winning 7-6 (4), 6-1.

The way she’s playing right now, she’ll like her chances once again against Zheng.

Displaying uncommon poise on Wednesday, Gauff was a 6-4, 7-6 (5) quarterfinal winner over No. 7 Mirra Andreeva. She’s won nine of her 10 matches on the red clay in Madrid and Rome.

“I’m really confident on clay,” Gauff told reporters. “I think it’s a surface that works well for my game. I would love to get a big title on clay just because I do love it. 

“I’m having a lot of confidence, but hoping to go even further.”

How much does she like playing in Rome? She’s the youngest player to reach her third semifinal here since Martina Hingis -- more than a quarter century ago. She and Ekaterina Alexandrova lead all women with three Top 10 wins this season on clay.

That confident state of mind could be seen in her interaction with reporters. Before the second quarterfinal that would deliver her opponent, Gauff was asked if she had a preference.

“Obviously,” she said, “I would maybe like to play Aryna because I just played her in Madrid, just to get some revenge.”

She’ll have to settle for Zheng. Gauff will be encouraged by that quarterfinal win last year in Rome.

The case for Zheng: There’s something about Italy. Two of her five titles came in Palermo the past two years, and she’s already collected 10 wins in both Rome and Palermo.

 Zheng is a big-game player … that win over Sabalenka was reminiscent of her straight-sets victory over Iga Swiatek in the semifinals of the Olympics. She’ll be looking forward to this match against Gauff, who will be ranked No. 2 in the PIF WTA Rankings come next week.

Hard to believe, but this is Zheng’s first semifinal since last November at the WTA Finals in Riyadh.

Against Sabalenka, Zheng landed only 54 percent of her first serves -- but managed to win 28 of those 34 points. She backed it up with a solid second serve (15-for-29) and saved all five of Sabalenka’s break-point opportunities.

It’s worth mentioning that all of her six previous losses to Sabalenka came on hard courts. The comfort of playing on clay could be a factor against Gauff, too.

“I guess when I play on clay, I’m more comfortable because I got great experience on clay,” Zheng said afterward. “Doing well tonight because [she was] more patient than her. I see today that when I make her play a lot. I’m just happy with my performance and happy to make the step forward to beat the world No. 1.”

The soon-to-be No. 2 awaits.

No. 6 Jasmine Paolini vs. Peyton Stearns (3 p.m. local, 9 a.m. ET)

Head-to-head: 0-0.

The case for Paolini: She’s playing with the crackling energy of the homefield advantage.

Down a set and 4-0 to Diana Shnaider in the quarterfinals, Paolini -- with the help of a roaring, adoring crowd at Foro Italico -- came all the way back to produce a stunning 6-7 (1), 6-4, 6-2 victory.

The 29-year-old Italian is into her first semifinal in Rome -- and playing with house money. Not surprisingly, Paolini has had success playing in Italy. This is her fourth semifinal on home soil. Previously, she reached the final four in Courmayeur (2021) and Palermo (2022 and 2023), but never at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia.

“Point by point, point after point, I found a way -- I fought until the end,” Paolini said afterward. “The crowd, of course, helped me.”

They’ll be behind her again in this one. 

Down 4-0 in that second set, the crowd began to get under Shnaider’s skin. She started playing too fast, especially on her serve. After her team asked for more spin and shape on her shots, Paolini honed in, sending high, bouncing shots to Shnaider’s backhand

That overwhelming support could mitigate the pressure Paolini will be feeling. She was a Roland Garros and Wimbledon finalist one year ago, but she’s looking to become only the third Italian woman in the Open Era to reach the Rome final after Raffaella Reggi (1985) and Sara Errani (2014).

Errani, her current doubles partner, has been a fixture in Paolini’s team box. She’ll be leading the cheering again on Thursday. On Friday, the No. 3 seeds in doubles play a semifinal match against Andreeva and Shnaider.

The case for Stearns: When you’ve won three consecutive third-set tiebreaks, how do you not feel invincible? Against great odds, that’s exactly what Stearns has done here in Rome.

In the third round, Stearns beat Australian Open champion Madison Keys 2-6, 6-2, 7-6 (3), Naomi Osaka in the fourth, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (4) and in the quarterfinals, Elina Svitolina 6-2, 4-6, 7-6 (4). The quality of those players underlines the degree of difficulty in Stearns’ achievement.

In the Open Era -- which constitutes 57 years of play -- no woman ever won three consecutive matches in a third-set tiebreak. The crazy thing? This is Stearns’ first-ever appearance in Rome’s main draw. She’s the only unseeded player still alive, ranked No. 42.

The last time Stearns won five straight matches on clay, she took the title last year in Rabat, Morrocco -- the only one so far in her career -- and won a first-round match at Roland Garros.

She won’t be intimidated by what promises to be a heavily pro-Paolini crowd.

"I don’t expect many people to be cheering for me,” Stearns said. “But that’s OK, I played college tennis so … I’m used to it.”