Wimbledon: Jasmine Paolini, Like Jannik Sinner and Flavio Cobolli

Jasmine Paolini continues her run at Wimbledon: the Italian champion, who had decided in recent days to focus solely on singles and withdraw from the doubles with Sara Errani, defeated Alexandra Eala of the Philippines in the round of 16, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 in two hours and twenty-three minutes of play.

Eala, ranked No. 32 in the WTA rankings, was a true dark horse in the tournament, buoyed by her victory in the previous round against Iga Swiatek, the defending champion of the London tournament. Paolini, however, showed great focus at the crucial moments of the match, with only one brief lapse in the middle of the second set that did not, however, compromise the final result.

Jasmine Paolini thus remains the only Italian still in contention in the women’s tournament, matching the best result so far achieved in the men’s tournament by Jannik Sinner and Flavio Cobolli: The player from Bagni di Lucca will face Marta Kostyuk in the quarterfinals; Kostyuk, having defeated American Ashlyn Krueger 6-4, 6-4, has already achieved her best result at Wimbledon.

Paolini and Kostyuk have faced each other three times on the major tour, with the Italian holding a 2-1 lead. Their most recent match, however, dates back to 2023, when Jasmine won decisively 6-2, 6-1 on the hard courts of Cincinnati. The other two head-to-head matches also took place on hard courts: a 6-2, 6-2 victory for Kostyuk, also in Cincinnati but in 2022, and a 5-7, 6-3, 6-4 win for Paolini in Cluj-Napoca four years ago.