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Five things to know about Wimbledon finalist Jasmine Paolini
The Italian with Ghanian roots is playing in her second consecutive Grand Slam final
Following a thrilling semifinal win that puts her into a second straight Grand Slam final, an exuberant Jasmine Paolini explained to the adoring crowd that filled the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club “this last month has been crazy for me.”
Paolini, an Italian with Ghanaian roots, who will be playing in her second Grand Slam final on Saturday despite having never gotten past the second round of a major tournament before her surprising run to the final of the French Open in June.
Short in stature (5-feet-4) and highly energetic, the curly-haired Paolini will likely be a crowd favorite after her gutsy three-set win over Donna Vekic that was the longest women’s semifinal match in Wimbledon history.
Who is Paolini, who will face Barbora Krejcikova on Saturday as Wimbledon crowns a different champion for its eighth consecutive tournament?
Here are five things you should know about Paolini who, after 13 years as a pro, is currently the seventh-ranked player.
She’s “fast because of Ghana.”
Paolini is Italian, born and raised, but as she addressed the media after her semifinal win Thursday, she expressed her pride in having “different bloods in my body,” and gave special praise to her bloodline that descends from the West African country of Ghana.
Her family: Her father, Ugo, is Italian and her 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.
“That’s a, I think, important part of my life,” Paolini said. “My mom, she’s Polish, but my grandfather is from Ghana. I think I’m fast because of Ghana.
She’s the first women’s player to reach consecutive French Open and Wimbledon finals in the same season since Serena Williams.
Williams last did that in 2016 when her victory at Wimbledon over Angelique Kerber came a month after she lost her French Open title match to Garbiñe Muguruza.
That 2016 Wimbledon title was the last for Williams at Wimbledon, where she won seven championships.
Since Williams won three of the four Slams in 2015, only Iga Świątek has won multiple Grand Slam titles in the same year (she won the French and US Open in 2022).
Neither Paolini nor Krejcikova have ever won a Slam at Wimbledon, so a new winner is guaranteed to hoist the trophy.
Not only does Paolini join elite company in becoming the first woman since Williams to play in consecutive French Open and Wimbledon finals, she’s also the oldest player (28) to reach their first semifinals in different Slams since 1977.
“Two Grand Slams in a row was crazy to believe,” Paolini said after her semifinal win.
Paolini had never advanced past the second round of a major before this year.
Paolini was ranked No. 31 entering the 2024 Australian Open in January, and even as she 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 Shnaider in the round of 128), No. 42 (Tatjana Maria in the round of 64) and No. 57 (Anna Blinkova in the round of 32).
No earth-shattering wins there, but it was progress (she lost in the round of 16 to Anna Kalinskaya, ranked No. 75 at the time, in straight sets).
Getting a sniff of her first solid run at a major clearly boosted Paolini’s confidence. She won her first WTA 1000 tournament in February at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, losing only two sets the entire tournament. After Elena Rybakina withdrew from the quarterfinals in Dubai, Paolini advanced to her first WTA 1000 semifinal.
Her run to the finals of the French Open was anything but a breeze as Paolini battled through three consecutive three-set matches (the last one to go the distance was a quarterfinal win over No. 4 Elena Rybakina).
Paolini lost to Swiatek, the top player in women’s tennis, in the French Open final.
Before 2024, Paolini had never won a main draw pro match on grass.
Before this year’s Wimbledon, the WTA posted its top 15 rankings of the most dominant women on that surface.
Ons Jabeur, world No. 10, was first.
Coco Gauff, world No. 2, was 15th.
Swiatek, world No. 1, didn’t make the list.
Paolini, of course, was not likely on the radar.
She entered this year having never won a grass court match in the main draw of a pro tournament, having played her pro career among all levels of pro tennis (ITF events, qualifying draws and WTA tournaments). Her career record on the grass courts at Wimbledon before this year: 0-3.
But there were signs that Paolini might have some success entering Wimbledon as she reached the semifinals on the grass courts of the Rothesay International tournament in Eastbourne, Great Britain (a WTA 500 event), by winning her first two matches.
With the wins at Eastbourne and Wimbledon, Paolini has now won eight of her last nine grass court matches.
“Maybe I didn’t realize before, but my coach was telling me that I could play well here,” Paolini said after winning her Wimbledon quarterfinal match. “I wasn’t believing too much … In Eastbourne. I was hitting the ball well on this surface, moving well. I was repeating to myself, ‘OK, it’s nice to play on grass. You can play well.’ ”
She’ll represent Italy in the Olympics.
Paolini’s rise from outside the top 30 in the WTA rankings at the start of the year to her current position as the No. 7 player in the world. Regardless of the Wimbledon final outcome, she will be ranked in the top 5 next week.
So the next stop for Paolini following Wimbledon will be the 2024 Paris Games, where she’ll compete in singles and doubles (with Sara Errani).
This will be the second Olympic games for Paolini, who lost her only singles match at the delayed 2020 Olympics in 2021 while finishing tied for ninth with Errani in doubles.
The expectations for Paolini will be higher as she’ll enter the games as one of the top players in the world.
She’ll be one of the favorites to win a medal.
Which would be the icing on the cake to an amazing year where Paolini has gone from a relative no-name player with no consistent track record of winning to the talk of the tennis world as the first Italian woman to reach a Wimbledon final.
“It’s a dream,” Paolini said after winning her semifinal match. “I was watching Wimbledon finals when I was kid, so I’m enjoying it and just living in the present.”