Lost the match, gained this: The single reason Coco Gauff is thrilled after the Rome final

Coco Gauff had a solid run at the Italian Open, although she couldn’t get over the line against Elina Svitolina in the final.

Svitolina edged out Gauff 6-4, 6-7(3-7), 6-2 after two hours and 49 minutes in Rome, picking up her 20th career title.

The Ukrainian put on a top performance, using her experience to stop Gauff from claiming her first WTA title of the year.

Despite coming up short against Svitolina, there were positives for Gauff to take away from the Italian Open – especially one part of her game that seemed to stand out.

Gauff showed improvement with her first serve in the Rome final, despite defeat

Gauff’s serve has been a frequent topic of conversation this season, mainly because of her ongoing issues with double faults.

She led the WTA Tour in double faults in both 2024 and 2025, and she’s on pace to repeat that trend again this year.

Against Svitolina, those struggles showed up again as Gauff finished with seven double faults compared to just two from Svitolina.

Still, there were positives to take away from her serving performance. Gauff hit 64.6% of her first serves in and won 64.4% of those points.

Both numbers were better than Svitolina’s totals for the match, though Gauff will want to improve on her second serve points won percentage of 37.5% going forward.

Elina Svitolina’s Rome title draw reactions from Iva Jovic and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga

Even though Gauff left the Italian Open final without the win, there were plenty of others happy to see Svitolina come out on top, including fellow American Iva Jovic.

Svitolina celebrated her victory on social media, posting photos with the caption: “Too busy living la dolce vita.”

Jovic, who had lost to Gauff earlier in the tournament, replied simply: “Amazing!”

Meanwhile, French tennis icon Jo-Wilfried Tsonga reacted with a pair of fire emojis, while Marta Kostyuk shared a congratulatory message for her fellow Ukrainian on Instagram.

Svitolina is clearly well-liked on the tour, and there was mutual respect between her and Gauff after their hard-fought final.

Svitolina hasn’t been past the quarterfinals at Roland Garros yet, but has made it that far five times. This year she’ll be hoping to break through that barrier.

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