{"id":3451,"date":"2026-05-25T01:45:51","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T01:45:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/3451\/"},"modified":"2026-05-25T01:45:51","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T01:45:51","slug":"coco-gauff-suffers-rankings-setback-despite-gusty-italian-open-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/3451\/","title":{"rendered":"Coco Gauff suffers rankings setback despite gusty Italian Open win"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Coco Gauff is into the Italian Open semifinal (Image: Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p>Coco Gauff nearly squandered a chance at the 2026 Italian Open semifinals, needing five match points to <a data-ylk=\"slk:edge Mirra Andreeva 4-6, 6-2, 6-4.;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.the-express.com\/sport\/tennis\/207126\/coco-gauff-italian-open-rome-semifinal-andreeva-quotes\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">edge Mirra Andreeva 4-6, 6-2, 6-4.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a data-ylk=\"slk:Gauff,;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.the-express.com\/latest\/coco-gauff\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Gauff,<\/a> ranked fourth in the world, entered the tournament on the doorstep of the No. 3 spot in the WTA rankings, needing its holder Iga Swiatek to sumble before the semifinal stage. That didn&#8217;t happen: the six-time grand slam winner was dominant in her semifinal, making easy work of Jessica Pegula in her quarterfinal match.<\/p>\n<p>Swiatek entered the Italian Open with 6,948 points. Reaching the semifinals guarantees her a minimum of 390 points and advances her tally to 7,243.<\/p>\n<p>The Polish 24-year-old&#8217;s WTA points total will climb to 7,533 if she reaches the final and to an even higher 7,883 if she wins the tournament.<\/p>\n<p>Gauff, the 2025 Italian Open runner-up (which earned her 650 points), climbed to 6,489 points in the WTA live table with her win over Andreeva in the quarterfinals.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Internazionali BNL D'Italia 2026 - Day Nine\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"640\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"standard-img w-full w-full h-auto\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/aol_the_express_111\/bb6fc3ece116f8800fbbe1c636954bbb.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Iga Swiatek is also into the Italian Open semifinals (Image: Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p>Gauff can climb to 6,749 points with a win over Sorana Cirstea in the semifinals and all the way up to 7,033 by winning the whole thing (a tally higher than Swiatek&#8217;s initial tally).<\/p>\n<p>After reaching the Australian Open quarterfinals, Swiatek has struggled: the 2026 Italian Open is her first semifinal at any tournaement since the United Cup in early January.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I feel much better and a lot of confidence on my shots,&#8221; the Polish played said after her win. &#8220;I&#8217;m really happy with the way I played.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>DON&#8217;T MISS:<\/p>\n<p>Gauff, also an Australian Open quarterfinalist, has reached just one final in 2026 (the Miami Open). She spoke effusively about her Cirstea, Gauff&#8217;s next opponent, after beating Andreeva.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Sorana [Cirstea] is a tough player,&#8221; the two-time grand slam winner said. &#8220;We played each other last tournament and it was three sets. So, it&#8217;s going to be another tough match, but grateful to be into the semifinals.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Gauff was forced to mount dramatic comebacks in both the third and fourth rounds of the Italian Open. She has dropped a set in three of her four matches in Rome.<\/p>\n<p> ]]&gt;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Coco Gauff is into the Italian Open semifinal (Image: Getty Images) Coco Gauff nearly squandered a chance at&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3452,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[248,185,942,247,320,1929,707,863,974],"class_list":["post-3451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-coco-gauff","tag-australian-open","tag-coco-gauff","tag-grand-slam-winner","tag-iga-swiatek","tag-italian-open","tag-match-points","tag-mirra-andreeva","tag-sorana-cirstea","tag-wta-rankings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3451\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}