“This past month has been crazy for me,” an elated Jasmine Paolini explained to a packed crowd at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club after a thrilling semi-final win that put her through to her second consecutive Grand Slam final.
Paolini, the Ghanaian-born Italian, will play in her second Grand Slam final on Saturday despite never getting past the second round of any major tournament before surprisingly reaching the French Open final in June.
Petite (5-feet-4) and extremely energetic, the curly-haired Paolini will likely be a crowd favorite after her stunning three-set win over Donna Vekic, the longest women’s semifinal match in Wimbledon history.
Who is Paolini who will face Barbora Krejcikova on Saturday when Wimbledon crowns a different champion for its eighth consecutive tournament?
Here are five things you should know about Paolini, who is currently the seventh-ranked player after spending 13 years as a professional player.
He is “fast because of Ghana.”
Paolini is Italian, born and raised, but when he addressed the media after Thursday’s semi-final win, he expressed pride in having “different blood in my body”, and coming from the West African country of Ghana. Wale gave special praise to his blood. ,
His Family: His father, Ugo, is Italian and his mother, Jacqueline, grew up in Poland. Paolini’s maternal grandmother is Polish, and her maternal grandfather is Ghanaian.
Paolini, like tennis player Naomi Osaka (born to Japanese and Haitian parents), embraces the multicultural aspects of her background that make her unique.
“I think it’s an important part of my life,” Paolini said. “My mother is Polish, but my grandfather is from Ghana. I think I’m fast because of Ghana.
She is the first female player to reach consecutive French Open and Wimbledon finals. in the same season Since Serena Williams,
Williams last did so in 2016 when her Wimbledon win over Angelique Kerber came a month after losing her French Open title match to Garbine Muguruza.
The 2016 Wimbledon title was Williams’ last title at Wimbledon, where she won seven championships.
Since Williams won three of the four Slams in 2015, only Iga Swiatek has won multiple Grand Slam titles in the same year (she won the French and US Opens in 2022).
Neither Paolini nor Krejcikova have ever won a Slam at Wimbledon, so a new winner is guaranteed to hoist the trophy.
Paolini not only joins elite company as the first woman since Williams to play in consecutive French Open and Wimbledon finals, but she is also the oldest player (28) to reach her first semifinal at multiple Slams since 1977 .
“It was crazy to believe two Grand Slams in a row,” Paolini said after the semifinal win.
Paolini had never advanced past the second round of a major before this year.
Paolini was ranked 31st entering the 2024 Australian Open in January, and even got past the second round of a major for the first time in her career by winning her first three matches. Those wins came over players ranked No. 92 (Diana Schneider in the Round of 128), No. 42 (Tatjana Maria in the Round of 64) and No. 57 (Anna Blinkova in the Round of 32).
There were no surprise wins, but it was progress (she lost in the round of 16 to Anna Kalinskaya, ranked 75th at the time, in straight sets).
Feeling his first solid run at a major competition clearly boosted Paolini’s confidence. She won her first WTA 1000 tournament at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships in February, losing only two sets in the entire tournament. After Elena Rybakina’s quarterfinal withdrawal in Dubai, Paolini reached her first WTA 1000 semifinal.
Her run to the final of the French Open was not easy as Paolini had to struggle through three consecutive set matches (the last to go the distance was a quarterfinal win over No. 4 Elena Rybakina).
Paolini lost to top women’s tennis player Swiatek in the French Open final.
Prior to 2024, Paolini had never won a main draw pro match on grass.
Ahead of this year’s Wimbledon, the WTA posted a top 15 ranking of the most dominant women on that surface.
World number 10 player Ons Jabeur finished first.
World number two player Coco Gauff was ranked 15th.
World number one player Swiatek did not find a place in the list.
Of course, Paolini was unlikely to be on the radar.
Having played her pro career between all levels of pro tennis (ITF events, qualifying draws and WTA tournaments), she had never won a grass court match in the main draw of a pro tournament this year. Before this year, his career record on the grass courts of Wimbledon was: 0-3.
But there were signs that Paolini might have some success entering Wimbledon as she reached the grass court semi-finals of the Rothesay International tournament (a WTA 500 event) in Eastbourne, Great Britain, after winning her first two matches.
With wins at Eastbourne and Wimbledon, Paolini has now won eight of her last nine grass court matches.
“Maybe I didn’t realize it at first, but my coaches were telling me I could play well here,” Paolini said after winning her Wimbledon quarterfinal match. “I wasn’t having a lot of confidence in Eastbourne. I was hitting the ball well on this surface, spinning well. I kept repeating to myself, ‘Okay, it’s nice to play on the grass. You can play well. ,
She will represent Italy in the Olympics.
Paolini rose from outside the top 30 in the WTA rankings at the beginning of the year to her current position as the No. 7 player in the world. Regardless of the Wimbledon final result, she will remain ranked in the top 5 next week.
So Paolini’s next stop after Wimbledon will be the 2024 Paris Games, where she will compete in singles and doubles (with Sara Errani).
This will be the second Olympic Games appearance for Paolini, who lost her only singles match at the delayed 2020 Olympics in 2021, while finishing ninth with Errani in doubles.
Expectations will be high for Paolini as she will enter the Games as one of the top players in the world.
She will be one of the strong contenders to win the medal.
This would be the icing on the cake to an amazing year where Paolini has gone from being an unknown player with no consistent track record of winning to becoming the talk of the tennis world as the first Italian woman to reach a Wimbledon final.
“It’s a dream,” Paolini said after winning his semifinal match. “I’ve been watching the Wimbledon finals since I was a kid, so I’m enjoying it and just living in the present.”
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