Home favourite Jasmine Paolini reached the Italian Open final with a 7-5 6-1 victory over Peyton Stearns, rallying after being forced to save two set points.

Paolini required one hour and 39 minutes to seal her victory as she became just the third Italian woman to reach the showpiece match on the clay in Rome.

Things could have been very different, however, as Stearns generated two attempts to take the opening set.

Paolini was unable to hold in her very first service game of Thursday's semi-final, and that was the first of five breaks in a topsy-turvy opening set.

Stearns had a set point on her own serve at 5-3 up and another against Paolini's serve in the next game, but roared on by a vocal home crowd, Paolini saved both before breaking again in the 11th game and backing that up with a confident hold.

Seemingly spent by a gruelling end to the opener, Stearns could not live with Paolini in the second set.

The 2024 French Open runner-up reeled off three straight breaks while applying constant pressure to Stearns' serve – the American only won 27% of her second-serve points in a second set that lasted just 37 minutes.

Paolini will face either Coco Gauff or Qinwen Zheng in the final, with the second women's singles semi-final taking place later on Thursday.

The Paolini Party isn't over @JasminePaolini conquers Stearns 7-5, 6-1 and moves one step closer to Italian History #IBI25 pic.twitter.com/5UA7AAQgVS

— wta (@WTA) May 15, 2025

Data Debrief: The late bloomer

Since the format's introduction in 2009, Paolini is the first Italian to reach multiple WTA-1000 finals, having won the Dubai Championships in February.

Camila Giorgi, Flavia Pennetta and current doubles partner Sara Errani had all reached one final each at that level.

And at the age of 29 years and 123 days, Paolini has become the third-oldest player to reach a maiden women's singles final at the Italian Open, younger only than Helga Masthoff (1971) and Li Na (2012).