'Very concerning': Roddick and Courier blunt verdict on Coco Gauff's loss to Jasmine Paolini

Andy Roddick and Jim Courier commented on Jasmine Paolini's big triumph over Coco Gauff in the Rome Open final, where they identified the American's unforced errors and forehand problems as key factors in the Italian's victory.

Both American former world No. 1s nevertheless highlighted a great performance by the Italian, who played a strategic match and took advantage of her opponent's weaknesses and errors to secure her second WTA 1000 title.

The Italian climbs to world No. 4 after a great tournament and will arrive at Roland Garros full of confidence. According to the 2003 US Open champion, the Italian's pressure on Gauff's forehand set the pace of the match. "She was very very good, creating space to the forehand, and only then attacking the backhand side, when she created that massive amount of space."

"Coco did not get a lot of those rallies backhand to backhand, which she would have preferred that wasn’t an accident by Jasmine Paolini. I thought she played a great match, execution wise, and I think it was a strategic match as well."

On the other hand, four-time Grand Slam champion Jim Courier pointed to Gauff's frustration throughout the match, which led her to commit too many unforced errors. "She was very frustrated with her team, they were trying to help her. It’s noisy in there, I’m not sure that she could even understand necessarily what they were saying, but the first serve percentage was very low today."

"A lot of double faults, but it was all about the forehand, I mean, she had 33 unforced errors on that shot alone. You would need a real big shovel to fill that hole in, and it’s something that’s very concerning, because you don’t want that to happen at the biggest moments."

Paolini closed the gap in the head-to-head against Gauff after two consecutive defeats to the American. Both players will now have a week to recover energy and prepare for their participation in Roland Garros, where both have reached the final previously (Gauff in 2022 and Paolini in 2024), although both ended up empty-handed, falling to Iga Swiatek.

Match Statistics Gauff vs. Paolini