Jasmine Paolini, quarterfinals remain haunted
Paolini eliminated
Jasmine Paolini postpones her appointment with the first quarterfinal of the season. The Tuscan (No. 6 WTA) lost 6-0 6-4 to Liudmila Samsonova (25) at the BNP Paribas Open, the WTA 1000 in Indian Wells. The Russian, playing as a neutral athlete who built her tennis career in Italy, had won both previous direct confrontations, in the qualifiers in St. Petersburg in 2019 and in the first round of the 2023 Australian Open. In the quarters she will face world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka, who came so far ahead for the first time in a WTA 1000 in 2025 thanks to a 6-1 6-2 victory over lucky loser Sonay Kartal.
It's certainly been a special match for Danilo Pizzorno, Samsonova's main coach who began working with her as a video-analysis consultant five years ago. The Italian specialist at the same time, that is, five years ago, also began working with Renzo Furlan, Jasmine Paolini’s coach.
Paolini, who as a seed started directly in the second round, defeated No. 157 Iva Jovic and No. 79 Jacqueline Cristian, also in three sets. The No. 1 Italian, a finalist at Roland Garros and Wimbledon last year, has an overall record of eight wins in 13 matches this season, although she has yet to make it three wins in a row in 2025. After the United Cup, she è in fact stopped in the third round at the Australian Open, Doha and Dubai, where she celebrated her first career title in a WTA 1000 last year.
Reaching the round of 16 for the second consecutive time in Indian Wells, Paolini played her 30th career match against Samsonova in a WTA 1000.
Dominant from the start on her serve and with her forehand accelerations, Samsonova won her ninth match of the season against Paolini. In earlier rounds she had defeated Caty McNally, No. 491, in two sets, then No. 12 seed Daria Kasatkina in a comeback. Her best result in 2025 remains the semifinal she lost in Adelaide to Madison Keys, who would go on to win the title and then triumph at the Australian Open. In the other tournaments played before Indian Wells, she lost twice in the second round (Dubai and Doha) and twice in her debut (Brisbane and Abu Dhabi).
She scored her eighth win against Top 10 players in her career, most recently this year in Adelaide against U.S. Emma Navarro, then world No. 8. She thus reached her fifth quarterfinal in a WTA 1000 after those played in Beijing and Montreal in 2023, Toronto and Cincinnati in 2024.
