Speaking ahead of the tournament, Gauff revealed she feels far more at home on the Italian clay than she has previously in Madrid and Stuttgart.
“I think maybe the conditions just suit my game,” she said in a pre-tournament interview. “I think this clay I like more than Madrid because there’s no altitude.
More Coco Gauff news
“I feel like Rome for me feels like the first normal clay tournament of the season because Stuttgart is indoor and not really real clay and then there is Madrid, that’s altitude but on real clay.
“So then this feels like we’re in normal altitude and normal clay. So it feels like the first thing. So, that’s why I feel like my relationship is complicated because I play well on it, but I feel like I play well on it for these last two tournaments of the swing. So, it’s kind of like the ninth inning stretch right now.”
After her first six tournaments at the Italian Open, Gauff holds an impressive 17-6 record. The Rome event is the only tournament she has managed to pick up more than 15 victories.
The five players to beat Coco Gauff in Rome
- Garbiñe Muguruza (2020)
- Iga Swiatek (2021)
- Maria Sakkari (2022)
- Marie Bouzková (2023)
- Iga Swiatek (2024)
- Jasmine Paolini (2025)
Her win rate at the Italian Open can only be beaten by two other Masters events on the WTA Tour calendar. Gauff has statistically performed better at the China Open and the Wuhan Open, although she has played half the amount of tournaments than in Rome.
Gauff’s excellent record at the Italian Open will be put to the test as she faces a difficult test at the 2026 event.
The American will play the winner of Tereza Valentova and Yulia Putinseva in the second round, two players who have been putting in impressive performances in 2026.
If Gauff and Raducanu meet in the third round of the Italian Open, it will remarkably be their first meeting since the 2025 event, when the American defeated the Brit to reach the quarter-finals.