Jasmine Paolini, champion’s reaction after a nightmarish start

After a first part of the season without sharpness in the singles matches, Jasmine Paolini finally returns to smile in Madrid, even if it is necessary to resort to all the weapons at the disposal of the Italian talent to get the better of the tenacious German Laura Siegemund: 3-6, 6-2, 6-4 the final score in favor of the athlete from Bagni di Lucca, who thus redeems the elimination in the first round against Zeynep Sonmez in Stuttgart last Wednesday.

The bad start threatens to send the Italian champion into confusion, but she regains a minimum of rhythm in the final of a first set already compromised at 4-1: in the second fraction the start is instead scorching, with four consecutive games that seal the tie without particular problems. Balanced the third set, marked in the initial part by a couple of breaks and counterbreaks: Jasmine manages to keep her concentration in the top moment and goes on to win against the number 47 in the ranking.

Jasmine Paolini’s goal is to go as far as possible in Madrid to put the difficulties of the first part of the season behind her for good and keep her place in the Top 10: the best result achieved in the Spanish capital was reaching the round of 16 in 2024, when Mirra Andreeva defeated the Azzurra in two sets.

Jasmine Paolini is not the only Italian still in the running at the Madrid WTA 1000: in fact, the very young Tyra Caterina Grant is also in the draw, who after passing the qualifiers beat Elsa Jacquemot in the first round and will challenge veteran Sorana Cirstea on Friday for a place among the top 32 on the draw.