After 11 years of waiting, Italy will return to play a women's singles final at Rome's Internazionali. On the clay court of the Foro Italico's Central Court in Rome, in fact, a stoic Jasmine Paolini yesterday prevailed 7-5 6-1 in the semifinals against U.S. Peyton Stearns, who was forced to concede after an hour and 41 minutes of contention. It was all decided in the first fraction when the Italian, down first 1-4 and then on 3-5, placed a partial six games to one, also erasing a double set point (the first of two with her opponent on serve). It was all easy thereafter for the number six seed, who in the second game dominated all operations by taking the serve away from her star-studded rival in the third, fifth and seventh games. It is the fifth success in a row for the Italian who, after a bye in her debut, defeated Australian Lulu Sun 6-3 6-4, Tunisian Ons Jabeur 6-4 6-3, Latvian Jelena Ostapenko 7-5 6-2 and individual neutral Diana Shnaider (1)6-7 6-4 6-2. For the Tuscan Olympian this was the eighth career final at the major circuit level as well as the second in a WTA 1000 tournament after the one she won in February last year in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The Roland Garros and Wimbledon 2024 finalist is also the fifth Italian in history (the third in the Open era) to set foot in the final act of the Internazionali after Lucia Valerio, Annalisa Ullstein, Raffaella Reggi and current doubles partner Sara Errani, the last Italian to succeed in this feat in the spring of 2014. On Saturday, May 17 (starting at 5 p.m.) Jasmine will play for the title with Gauff.