Resurgent Elina Svitolina reigns supreme in Rome

Svitolina produced some spellbinding tennis to defeat Gauff 6-4, 6-7, 6-2 in very slow conditions on a cold night in the Italian capital.

After falling short in last year's Italian Open final to Jasmine Paolini, Gauff was determined to come out on top this time out and raced into a first-set lead.

However, seventh seed Svitolina - who beat Elena Rybakina and Iga Swiatek on her run to the final - broke back twice to move 6-4 up.

Just when it looked like the match was slipping away from the American, the 22-year-old rallied and played an excellent tiebreak (7-3) to take it to a decider. However, the 31-year-old composed herself once again to claim a fourth WTA 1000 crown.

"Very hard to believe it's been eight years since I had this trophy here," said Svitolina on court afterwards.

"Very, very pleased with the two weeks here, but firstly, I want to say congrats to Coco for a great performance here. To your team as well.

"You're such a great champion and I hope to have more battles with you in the future. Then I want to thank my team. I had a tough loss in the final in Dubai this year and it was my 19th title and I was aiming for 20 before I finished my career.

"I want to thank the tournament for making it really great for us and improving every year. I really enjoy coming here and playing in Rome. These last two weeks I've been playing late matches and it's been unbelievable to see you guys staying up and supporting us. Day in, day out. You always make it very special. It's always one of my favourite tournaments."

Svitolina is now up to third in the WTA race, while Gauff remains in sixth. These two will be among the heavy favourites to win this year's French Open.

The Ukrainian's victory was her second WTA title of the season, following her victory at the ASB Classic at the start of the year in January.

Svitolina has a 28-7 win record now and she surely has more than an outside chance of winning Roland Garros later this month.

The 31-year-old now holds seven WTA Tour titles on clay and she has reached five quarter-finals at the Paris Grand Slam.

She holds a 73% win rate at the Grand Slam, which is statistically her best-performing major tournament by win rate.

READ MORE: Tyla Promnick wins SA Title in closely contested war