Jasmine Paolini, fresh of a historical title in Rome, transferred her dynamics to the French Open and crushed a hard victory in the first round over Yuan Yue, Chinese in Roland Garros.
World No. 4 and the fourth seed had to dig deep to get around Yuan, eventually dominated 6-1, 4-6, 6-3 in the Suzanne-Langlen court. The result expanded Paolini’s winning lane to seven matches and emphasized its growing authority on the clay.
She soon looked in full control, racing the first set with a commanding basic game and a solid portion. But Yuan, a former top 40 player, has grown more aggressive in the second and earned a stain of unforced errors from Paolini to equalize the match.
Yuan brought this momentum into a decisive set, broke Paolini to go up 3-2 and threaten to pull out the greatest victory of his career. But Paolini kept his nerves. The Italian immediately returned and threw the last four games to close the competition.
With the victory, Paolini moves in one victory when she matches her best winning lane. Its appearance increased from the lifting of Internazionali Bnl d’Italia at the beginning of this month and became the first Italian woman in four decades to require a Roman crown.
Her revival on the clay was a key story on WTA. Last year she achieved her first Grand Slam final in Paris, the first Italian woman to do so because Flavia Pennetta won the US Open 2015. A few weeks later it supported another deep run and achieved the final of Wimbledon.
“It was hard,” Paolini said. “I won the first set quite easy, but then started playing better. It was a bit of emotion.
“Then I was 3-2 with a break but I did it. Hopefully I will play better than the next round. We’ll see.”
In the second round Paolini will face either Ajla Tomljanovic or Maya Joint, both from Australia. She never played rivals.
On Sunday 18. The seed of Donna Vekic-finalist at the Olympic Games in Paris-fought around Russian Anna Blinkovy 7-5, 6-7 (4), 6-1. Vekic struck nine ace during the match, while Blinkova could not register any, underlined the Croatian edge to serve.
Published:
Saurabh Kumar
Published on:
26. May 2025
