For Jasmine Paolini, her Australian Open 2024 results have been a long time coming.
In Melbourne this week, the 28-year-old reached the third round of Grand Slam for the first time in 17 attempts.
DRAW: Australian Open 2024 women’s singles
“Finally,” beamed the bubbly Italian, whose mother is of Polish and Ghanaian descent. “It's really, really good for me,” said the right-hander, who at 5’4” (163cm) is one of the more diminutive players on tour.
Seeded for the first time at a major, the 28-year-old is becoming increasingly familiar with stepping into the spotlight alongside male compatriots like Jannik Sinner, Lorenzo Musetti, Matteo Arnaldi and United Cup teammate Lorenzo Sonego.
At world No.31, she’s Italy’s highest ranked women’s singles player ahead of Lucia Bronzetti, Camila Giorgi, Martina Trevisan and Elisabetta Cocciaretto, all of whom are in the top 100.
A second-round clash at the 2021 US Open, where she twice broke the serve of two-time AO champion Victoria Azarenka, gave Paolini confidence in her game on hard courts, propelling her to post top-10 wins over players including defending champion Aryna Sabalenka and last year’s finalist Elena Rybakina on the surface.
The 2022 win over Sabalenka in particular made the Tuscany native, who previously only felt solid on clay, realise she can go toe-to-toe with even the most powerful hitters.
“Like [Jenson] Brooksby said one time, tennis is not to hit strong the ball, it's doing something different,” she said. “I just try to run, to put the ball as deep as I can, and sometimes also I [make] some winners.”
Since then, she’s worked hard on improving her serve and on adding spin to her forehand. “I cannot play flat because I’m 160 centimetres,” she laughed.
The effort is paying off for Paolini, who reached a career-high ranking of world No.29 in October.
During her second-round win over Tatjana Maria on Court 6, the rising star made 83 per cent of first serves, a feat she’ll aim to replicate in Saturday’s clash against world No.57 Anna Blinkova.
Blinkova upset Rybakina in a nail-biting AO second round that featured the longest singles tiebreak in Grand Slam history, and has a 3-2 head-to-head advantage over Paolini.
“It’s going to be tough,” said the Italian, who was felled in three sets in her most recent battle against Blinkova in the final of the 2022 Transylvania Open.
Still, the right-hander has become accustomed to delivering big wins on big stages, and has confidence that she can produce a certain level of tennis under pressure.
In November, she helped propel Italy to its first Billie Jean King Cup final since 2013, the year she watched from the stands as a teenage fan as her AO 2024 doubles partner Sara Errani helped their nation to victory. Earlier this month, she overcame on-court cramping to defeat three-time Grand Slam champion Angelique Kerber at the United Cup.
Despite being an athlete, Paolini has never attended a soccer game, and says she’s keen to catch AC Milan, the team supported by her father and brother, in action at the San Siro Stadium in Milan.
Any such plans are on the backburner for now though: alongside 12th seed Qinwen Zheng she is one of only two seeds left in her quarter; a career-first Grand Slam quarterfinal is within reach.
But first things first. On Saturday, she has a fourth-round berth to earn.