PARIS (AP) — Jasmine Paolini reached the first Grand Slam semifinal of her career by beating fourth-seeded Elena Rybakina 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 at the French Open on Wednesday.
“It’s an incredible feeling,” Paolini said.
Paolini, 28, the 12th seed from Italy, had exited in the first or second round in each of her first 16 Grand Slam appearances before reaching the fourth round of the Australian Open in January. Now she has gone two steps further by beating the 2022 Wimbledon champion.
With Jannik Sinner reaching the men’s semifinals, it’s the first time that an Italian woman and an Italian man have both reached the last four of the same Grand Slam tournament in the same year. It’s a big moment for his country in tennis: On Monday, Sinner will become the first man to be ranked No. 1 in the ATP rankings.
Paolini will face either No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka or unseeded 17-year-old Mira Andreeva on Thursday for the title.
The other semifinal will be between No. 1 Iga Swiatek and No. 3 Coco Gauff.
Paolini made 22 unforced errors, less than half of Rybakina’s 48. And Paolini earned seven breaks against the big-serving Rybakina, who hit 10 aces.
“In the second set I got a bit more emotional,” Paolini said. “But then I said to myself: ‘OK. It’s good. He’s a great champion, so it can happen. Just fight. Try to keep it in there. Try to hit every ball.’ And, yeah, it worked.”
The first set couldn’t have gone better for Paolini – or worse for Rybakina.
Paolini took the first 15 points on her serve, and 16 of 17 overall. She also took 16 of 32 points on Rybakina’s serve.
And while Paolini must be given credit for playing clean and showing no signs of being overwhelmed by the stage or the moment, Rybakina was far behind. By the end of the set, Rybakina had committed 16 unforced errors – 15 more than Paolini.
Paolini went ahead by a break twice in the second game, including a 4-3 lead. In the next game when she was 40-15 ahead, Paolini was one point away from going 5-3 ahead and was one game away from the biggest win of her career.
But Rybakina composed herself, got a break and won the final three games to force a third set.
Again, Paolini kept moving ahead, then fell behind. She was up 1-0 in the last set, then 2-1, and was one point away from going 3-1 up. Rybakina did not give up and kept fighting back.
But Paolini broke one last time to take a 5-4 lead, then served out and screamed when Rybakina hit a backhand long.
,
AP Tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis
Source: Post
