Tumaini Carayol at the Foro Italico

• Fourth seed overwhelms British player in 6-1, 6-2 win
• American wins last four games to go through

During her encouraging journey to the second week of the Italian Open, Emma Raducanu showcased her quality and fighting spirit across three wins against solid top 100 opponents.

The best players in the world, ­however, present a completely dif­ferent physical and mental challenge. This was reinforced on a windy Monday afternoon as ­Raducanu was outclassed by a supreme display from the fourth seed Coco Gauff. Fresh off her run to the Madrid Open final, Gauff played another brilliant match in a contest between two former US Open champions to reach the quarter-finals in Rome with an emphatic 6-1, 6-2 win.

• Briton beats Veronika Kudermetova 5-7, 6-0, 6-1 in Rome
• Raducanu will face Coco Gauff in fourth round

At the end of a bruising, high-quality first set of her third battle in Rome, Emma Raducanu had good reason to seethe. After the significant effort it took to take control against Veronika Kudermetova, Raducanu balked at the chance to serve out the set. She returned to her seat trailing, her opponent carrying all the momentum.

• World No 1 back from three-month doping ban
• Italian comfortably defeats Mariano Navone 6-3, 6-4

“Lord forgive me, the Sinner is back,” read a pair of T-shirts, complete with AI-generated religious imagery, worn by two exuberant women sporting orange wigs in a crowd of thousands that had amassed outside the Foro Italico’s stadium court an hour before festivities began.

Their joy was reflective of a jubilant night in Rome as Jannik Sinner marked his return to professional tennis after his three-month doping ban with a win on home soil at the Italian Open, closing out a positive performance with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Mariano Navone of Argentina to reach the third round.