Italy added another plaudit to their incredible 2024 Roland Garros as Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini battled from a set down into the women’s doubles final.
Roland Garros: Scores | Draws
No.11 seeds Errani and Paolini overcame unseeded Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine and Elena-Gabriela Ruse of Romania 1-6, 6-4, 6-1 in a 2-hour and 1-minute semifinal on Court Simmone Mathieu on Friday.
The Italians will take on No.5 seeds Coco Gauff of the United States and Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic in Sunday’s final.
Teaming up for the very first time, Gauff and Siniakova were also down a set before ousting all-American No.8 seeds Caroline Dolehide and Desirae Krawczyk 5-7, 6-4, 6-2.
Booking their ticket into the doubles final 🎟️
No.11 seeds Jasmine Paolini and @SaraErrani move past Kostyuk/Ruse, 1-6, 6-4, 6-1!#RolandGarros pic.twitter.com/j07OdNcfwL
— wta (@WTA) June 7, 2024
Forza fortnight: Paolini continues her breakthrough Slam, moving into her first Grand Slam doubles final a day after she made her first Grand Slam singles final.
Paolini, who will face World No.1 Iga Swiatek in Saturday’s singles final, is the third player in the last four editions of Roland Garros to make the singles and women’s doubles finals in the same year. Barbora Krejcikova won both titles in 2021; Coco Gauff reached both finals in 2022.
Italy is represented in three of this weekend’s finals — Errani and Paolini’s compatriots Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori are into the men’s doubles final. Italy’s Jannik Sinner fell in the men’s singles semifinals but will still become the new ATP World No.1 on Monday.
A major doubles final is nothing new for former Doubles World No.1 Errani. The 37-year-old is into her ninth Grand Slam doubles final, and her first since 2014. Errani and Roberta Vinci won five Slams together between 2012 and 2014, including at all four majors.
With this latest result, Errani and Paolini extend their success this season. Last month, they teamed up to win the WTA 1000 Rome doubles title in front of a joyous home crowd.
Friday’s semifinal in Paris was marked by two lengthy games. At 2-1 in the second set, Kostyuk and Ruse won a 19-minute, 13-deuce game, converting their tenth break point of that tussle to get back on serve at 2-2.
The unseeded pair’s joy was short-lived as the Italians rebounded from that grueling game, holding up in rallies better and grinding out the second set.
An 11-minute game opened the third set, and this time it was the Italians who prevailed on their third break point to grab the early lead. Errani and Paolini ran out the set from there, winning 80 percent of points returning their opponents’ first serves in the final set.
Stellar pairing debut: In their first event as a team, former Doubles World No.1 players Gauff and Siniakova remained undefeated as a duo by winning the day’s second semifinal in 1 hour and 58 minutes on Court Mathieu.
Gauff is into her third Grand Slam women’s doubles final, and is seeking her first title. Siniakova already has seven Grand Slam women’s doubles titles, including two at Roland Garros pairing Barbora Krejcikova.
Gauff and Siniakova have been a strong pairing from the start, winning their first four matches of the event in routine straight sets. It looked as though it might be more of the same as they romped to a 5-2 lead on Friday.
However, big returns, particularly from Dolehide, pulled the eighth seeds back into contention, and they swept five games in a row to squeak out the one-set lead.
Gauff and Siniakova built another lead in the second set, but serving for the set at 5-4, Gauff stared down 0-40 on her serve. She and Siniakova, though, fought back in that game, and Siniakova closed out the set with a volley winner to level the encounter.
A Gauff backhand return winner sealed the first break of the third set for 3-2, and Gauff saved two break points to consolidate for 4-2. At 5-2, a perfect Siniakova lob gave the pair match point, which was converted by a bold diving volley winner by Gauff.
More to come…