Coco Gauff has impressed this week, as her 2026 season continues to go from strength to strength.
Now, on Saturday, she will have a golden opportunity to claim her first WTA 1000 title of the campaign, and one that she came so close to winning last year.
There, she was defeated by Jasmine Paolini, who made history in her home country.
This year, it is Elina Svitolina who will hope to once again spoil Coco Gauff’s party.
Who do you think is winning the women’s Italian Open final? 🏆
Alas, speaking ahead of that final, the American was actually discussing one part of the sport in general, which ‘made no sense’.
She even argued that, to benefit more casual viewers, tennis could consider a rule change.
Coco Gauff suggests a rule change that tennis should make
Chatting at her press conference, one reporter remarked on just how harsh the scoring system of tennis can be.
Gauff concurred and had a solution when asked if she’d make any changes to it.
She first claimed: “Yeah, it is very brutal at times, and also favourable at times. I think the uniqueness about our sport is literally it’s not over until it’s over.”
The world number three then added: “If there’s anything I would change about the scoring? Maybe, like, the way the games are 15-Love, 30-Love. That doesn’t make any sense to me. It’s so hard to explain that to people. It’s 15-30, but it goes to 40. Why?
“I don’t know, 1-0, 1-All situation. At least make it incrementally. It should be 45, not 40, so yeah.”
Is Coco Gauff playing well enough to win Rome and Roland Garros?
She's into the Italian Open final!
She will play in the final of this event on Saturday, with Elina Svitolina already outlining what she will definitely do before the match against Gauff.
Coco Gauff’s tough run of ranking points to defend
Heading into this year’s clay-court campaign, many feared for Gauff, given how many points she had to defend.
After all, despite only winning one title on the dirt, she reached the quarter-finals in Stuttgart before making it to back-to-back finals in Madrid and Rome. Then, as we all know, the 22-year-old claimed the Roland Garros title.
However, despite her patchy form ahead of the switch in surface, Gauff has steadied herself and performed admirably, having already defended all of her points here in Rome, as she did last month in Stuttgart.
| Event | 2025 performance | Points to defend | 2026 performance |
| Roland Garros | Winner | 2,000 | … |
| Italian Open | Final | 650 | Final* |
| Madrid Open | Final | 650 | Round of 16 |
| Stuttgart Open | Quarter-final | 54 | Quarter-final |
Discussing the nature of defending ranking points in that same press conference, she admitted: “I mean, I think I used to get caught up in the point system and things like that, just trying to defend.
“Now, when I go into Roland Garros, I’m not even thinking about ranking or anything. I want to make sure I mentally approach that tournament in the correct way. If I lose first round, I mentally give it my all, it’s okay, I learned from it.
“I definitely don’t want to be thinking about what if, what if I lose or what if I this. I just want to take it one match at a time.”
