When Jasmine Paolini plays at the WTA Finals: background with Jessica Pegula

Tomorrow, no earlier than 3 p.m. Italian time, 5 p.m. local time, Jasmine Paolini, already eliminated from both singles and doubles, will close her beautiful 2025 in the last match of the elimination round of the WTA Finals in Riyadh.

The opponent of the 29-year-old Tuscan from Bagni di Lucca, world number 8, will be U.S. number 5 Jessica Pegula, who so far has won with compatriot Coco Gauff in three sets and lost to Belarusian WTA number 1 Aryna Sabalenka also in three sets. Jasmine, on the other hand, has not won a single set with both Sabalenka and Gauff.

This year in Rome Paolini won her third major circuit tournament, her second 1000, Pegula on the other hand in 2025 tournaments won three. Previous direct comparisons are five wins to five in Pegula’s favor, and Paolini has never managed to win a single set.

The first match was in 2016, 6-2 6-3 in the quarters on clay in Orlando. So the others: 7-6 6-2 in the round of 16 at Houston in 2018, 6-4 6-1 in the same round at Indian Wells in 2021, 6-2 6-1 in the round of 16 at Charleston in 2022, and 6-4 6-0 in the round of 16 at Montreal in 2023. All of these matches took place before Paolini’s explosion last year, too bad tomorrow’s match for the Italian won’t count for much.