Pegula’s Double Bagel, Gauff’s Reunion, And Why Rome Suddenly Looks Very American

Jessica Pegula and Coco Gauff gave the Italian Open a distinctly American plot twist, and Rome rarely does subtle when it finds one. Pegula delivered a first career double bagel, while Gauff reunited with Caty McNally as McCoco dusted off the old doubles chemistry and, somehow, made it look like they had never missed a beat.

Pegula’s Cleanest Hour In Rome

Pegula’s 6-0, 6-0 win over Rebeka Masarova was not just dominant, it was numerically rude. The fifth seed needed just one hour and broke serve five times, an efficient afternoon that looked more like a professional audit than a tennis match.

That result pushed Pegula into the round of 16 and extended a strong clay-court spring. She had already opened with a 6-4, 6-0 win over Zeynep Sonmez, which means Rome has yet to see her even mildly inconvenienced.

The bigger historical note is that this was Pegula’s first double bagel in 424 career matches. She also became the first player in the Open Era to record three consecutive 6-0 sets at the Italian Open, a stat that sounds invented until you check the bracket and realize, no, she really did that.

Pegula also reached 112 WTA 1000 wins, tying Venus Williams for second on the American all-time list in the format. Serena Williams remains far ahead with 148, because of course she does, but Pegula is now in some very serious company.

McCoco Is Back, And The Clay Is Already Complaining

Across the grounds, Gauff and McNally reunited for the first time in years on the WTA doubles scene, and the crowd got exactly the kind of throwback tennis fans pretend they are too sophisticated to love. They won their opener after dropping the first set, then surviving the tiebreak pressure that tends to turn doubles into a soap opera with overgrips.

Italian Open · Doubles · 2026 McCoco reunited and had to dig out of an early hole before closing it out in a tiebreak.

Player	Set 1	Set 2	Set 3
Caty McNally / Coco Gauff (USA)	4	7	10
Opponents	6	6	8

The result mattered for more than nostalgia. Gauff has admitted to dealing with off-court issues after her latest singles win, and pairing up with an old friend for a grinding doubles victory may have been exactly the kind of reset button she needed.

My Tennis Expert believes doubles can be therapy, but only the kind that comes with a second serve and a lot of emotional range. McCoco at the Italian Open felt less like a reunion tour and more like a reminder that some partnerships still know how to improvise under pressure.

Why This Matters For The Rest Of Rome

There is a broader American thread running through this tournament, and it is looking more and more like a committee meeting in which Pegula is doing most of the talking. Gauff, Pegula, and rising teenager Iva Jovic are all still in the mix, which is not a bad way to stock an event right before Roland Garros.

Gauff’s next assignment is an all-American singles match with Jovic, who has been one of the surprise stories of the event. Jovic advanced past Taylor Townsend, and now she gets a shot at the reigning French Open champion, which is a pretty brisk way to move from promising to spotlighted.

Pegula, meanwhile, gets qualifier Anastasia Potapova, who has already knocked off seeded opponents and does not look like someone who came to Rome to be a footnote. The next round should tell us whether Pegula is peaking at the perfect time or simply keeping her foot on the clay-season gas.

There is also the uncomfortable little matter of Gauff’s singles form and mental state, which makes her doubles return feel even more relevant. Sometimes the cleanest tennis is the tennis played with a friend, especially when one player supplies the forehand and the other supplies the memory of better days.

Rome has not exactly been short on twists this week, but Pegula’s statistical march and McCoco’s reunion have given the event a sturdy American backbone. If Gauff keeps rolling in singles and doubles, the Italian Open may become less a clay-court tune-up and more a full-service audition for Paris.

The Clay Season Is Getting Loud

Pegula’s surge is especially timely because she has already won titles in Charleston and Dubai this season, and now she is translating that form into a heavyweight Roman statement. Clay is usually where patience wins, but Pegula just accelerated the whole conversation.

Gauff’s situation is a little more delicate, though the doubles win suggests she is still capable of compartmentalizing when the draw starts to pinch. She remains the defending French Open champion and a former French Open doubles champion, which means she is still one of the players everyone else is measuring against.

The bottom line is simple, which is rare enough in tennis to deserve a bell ring. Pegula is on a tear, Gauff is juggling singles, doubles, and life, and McCoco is suddenly back in the business of making every late-round Italian Open opponent very uncomfortable.