2026 U.S. Open: No Luck for Jasmine Paolini
Jasmine Paolini’s run at the 2026 U.S. Open came to an end in the third round. The Italian tennis player was defeated in two sets by Sorana Cirstea, the world No. 17. The Tuscan athlete was defeated 6-3, 6-3 by the Romanian, who closed out the match in an hour and a quarter and will face the winner of the match between Jessica Pegula and Layla Fernandez in the next round.
Paolini got off to a good start, securing an encouraging break in the second game. But as the match progressed, Cirstea found her rhythm, while the Italian struggled with too many errors, including on her serve (her first serve was particularly poor): with a decisive 1-6 run, the Romanian turned the set around.
Before the second set, Jasmine tried to regain her composure by calling a bathroom break, and the momentum of the match initially shifted: the Tuscan broke serve in the third game. But too many unforced errors once again penalized the Italian, who in the sixth game suffered the break that turned the match around again. In the eighth game, Cirstea took a 5-3 lead by breaking Paolini’s serve again; in the ninth game, Paolini put up a final fight, saving three match points with sheer determination—but it wasn’t enough to avoid defeat.
Paolini, who had eliminated Stefanini and Erjavec in her first two matches, thus exits in the third round of the season’s final Grand Slam, just as she did exactly one year ago. Her best result at Flushing Meadows came in 2024, when she reached the round of 16.
