Before 2024, Jasmine Paolini had never won a main-draw match at tour-level on grass.
Now, she’s into the Wimbledon semifinals – and one win away from back-to-back Grand Slam finals.
To describe her ascent as extraordinary is an understatement.
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Just six months ago, the Italian was ranked outside the top 30 when she began her campaign at Australian Open 2024. She made the fourth round there, the beginning of a late-career surge for the 28-year-old.
What’s followed has been nothing short of inspiring. She won her first WTA 1000 title in Dubai, then reached her first major final at Roland Garros.
Following her win over Emma Navarro in the Wimbledon quarterfinals, she’s projected to crack the world’s top five.
“I’m feeling great,” said Paolini, the first Italian woman to reach a Wimbledon singles semifinal in the Open era.
“(Against Navarro) I think I play a really good match. No mistakes. Yeah, it was really perfect match. Really, really nice to be in the semifinal here at Wimbledon.
“I think I’m moving well here. Today I played a really good forehand. It’s working good in this tournament, the forehand. I hope it’s going to help me with Donna.”
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When she plays Donna Vekic in Thursday’s semifinals, Paolini will seek a place in back-to-back finals at Roland Garros and Wimbledon, something only Serena Williams has achieved in the past decade.
That’s an outstanding achievement on its own, and even more so when you consider Paolini had barely won a match on grass until his year.
Across all levels throughout her career – ITF events, qualifying draws and WTA tournaments – Paolini had played 16 grass-court matches and lost 12 of them. None of the four wins came in the main draw of a tour-level grass-court tournament.
But Paolini has enjoyed a drastic upswing in results on the lawns this year, something which does not surprise Simon Rea.
Rea, a former coach of Nick Kyrgios and Sam Stosur and now a senior data analyst at Tennis Australia, said that Paolini’s game should work on the surface.
“She’ll be feeling 10-foot-tall and bulletproof (after Roland Garros) as she makes the transition. I don’t think she’s progressed beyond the first round at Wimbledon yet, but I think this can be the year,” he predicted.
“Ball-striking, power, aggression, court position; they lend themselves really favourably towards executing well on the grass.”
In her very first grass-court tournament at Eastbourne, Paolini powered into the semifinals.
And she’s repeated the feat at Wimbledon, to win seven of her past eight grass-court matches.
“Maybe I didn’t realise before, but my coach was telling me that I could play well here. I wasn’t believing too much,” Paolini confessed. “Also the last two years I played against (Petra) Kvitova first round, so it was tough to believe it.
“I felt great also in Eastbourne. I was hitting well the ball on this surface, moving well. I was repeating to myself: ‘OK, it’s nice to play on grass. You can play well’.
“(But) I didn’t expect to do a semifinals here at all.”