Coco Gauff vs. Zheng Qinwen: Where to watch their Rome semifinal, preview and prediction

Coco Gauff vs. Zheng Qinwen

🖥️ Stream live on TennisChannel.com, not before 2:30 p.m. ET, here

These two young Top Tenners—Zheng is 22, Gauff 21—have traveled similar, slightly disappointing roads for most of 2025. They both came into the season with very high hopes, having closed their 2024 campaigns by meeting in a dramatic title match at the WTA Finals in Riyadh, which Gauff won in a fantastic, third-set-tiebreaker finish.

Neither of them continued to rise in the new year, though. Gauff didn’t make a quarterfinal for three months after Australia, while Zheng couldn’t make it past the quarters. But they both like clay—Gauff is a former Roland Garros runner-up, and Zheng won Olympic gold on that same red dirt in Paris. Now they’re both in a WTA 1000 semifinal in Rome, after beating two of this year’s top performers, Mirra Andreeva and Aryna Sabalenka, in straight-set semis.

Read More: Coco Gauff, it turns out, was the player to slow down Mirra Andreeva

Gauff and Zheng have played twice, and the American has won both times. The first was in Rome last year, the second was in Riyadh in November, when Gauff came back from break down twice in the final set. It was a result that had to gnaw at Zheng through the off-season. Now she has her first chance at revenge.

Can she get it? Obviously, both of these streaky players are in form and swinging confidently at the moment. Gauff has played with more aggression, and hasn’t had too many service yips or forehand shanks this week. The same goes for Zheng, who outhit the WTA’s dominant player of the moment, Sabalenka, on Wednesday.

If both women are still sharp on Thursday, I’d probably give the edge to Zheng. But if it’s a scrappier affair, I’d say Gauff is the safer bet. Winner: Gauff