Swiatek, Sabalenka set up Italian Open final

Top seeds Iga Swiatek and Aryna Sabalenka will meet in Saturday's Italian Open final for a repeat of the Madrid Open final earlier this month, after outclassing Americans Coco Gauff and Danielle Collins, respectively, in the semi-finals.

The world No. 1 from Poland beat 3rd-seeded Gauff 6-4, 6-3 to give herself the edge of becoming the third player to achieve a back-to-back victory in Madrid and Rome. With a 7-3 head-to-head record against the Belarusian second seed, Swiatek said after the semi-final that she is "just going to play as best tennis as possible in the final."

Sabalenka, who lost her title defense to Swiatek in a marathon Madrid final 7-5, 4-6, 7-6(7) two weeks ago, does not expect anything less than a tough match again. "I really like our tough battles. It's always close matches," she said. 

On Friday, Swiatek was broken early by Gauff who quickly set up a 2-0 lead. The Pole retrieved the deficit at 4-4 and held to take the set with a backhand winner. Swiatek broke first in the fifth game of the second set, and secured her lead at 4-3 when faced with her second break point that the U.S. Open champion failed to convert, before breaking Gauff again to clinch her 11th consecutive victory on clay in one hour and 47 minutes.

Later in the evening, Sabalenka took the first set 7-5 after her early lead of 4-1 was erased by Collins, who managed to level at 5-5 to force a tiebreak, and took the second 6-3 just before midnight with no more break point forced by the 13th seed to reach her first final at Rome. 

In the men's draw, Chilean Nicolas Jarry upset Greece's Stefanos Tsitsipas 3-6, 7-5, 6-4 to reach his Masters 100 level semi-final, where he will meet American Tommy Paul who edged out Poland's Hubert Hurkacz 7-5, 3-6, 6-3.