Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini: The First Hurdle Has Been Cleared—Now They’re Playing for a Place in History
Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini secured their spot in the semifinals of the WTA Finals, scheduled for Indian Wells, during the night between Tuesday and Wednesday (Italian time)—the first time they’ve done so since they began playing doubles together. This is a historic achievement for the Italian duo, who in their previous appearances—in 2024 and 2025—had never managed to advance past the group stage.
The Olympic champions capitalized on Katerina Siniakova and Taylor Townsend’s victory over Demi Schuurs and Ellen Perez: with the Dutch pair now mathematically eliminated, the Italians only needed to defeat Cristina Bucsa and Nicole Melichar-Martinez to secure their spot in the semifinals. They achieved their goal, though it was by no means a walk in the park.
Errani and Paolini got off to a bad start by losing the first set, but managed to extend the match by winning the super tiebreak: 3-6, 6-2, 10-7 was the final score, securing first place in their group and advancing to the next round. On Thursday, the match between Siniakova/Townsend and Bucsa/Melichar-Martinez will decide second place, while Schuurs and Perez are already out of the tournament.
The Italian duo has thus broken a streak: after two consecutive editions in which they were eliminated in the group stage, Errani and Paolini have reached the semifinals of the WTA Finals for the first time. They will take the court on Saturday, as the top seed in their group, against the second-place finisher from Group 1. First, however, the Italians will have to play their final round-robin match against Schuurs and Perez. Regardless of the result, this match will also help them build momentum, fitness, and confidence ahead of the tournament’s decisive stage.
This achievement holds even greater significance when considering the Italians’ history at the WTA Finals. The best result ever achieved by an all-Italian pair remains the semifinals, reached by Sara Errani herself—in both instances partnered with Roberta Vinci—in 2012 and 2013. In the first instance, the Italian duo was eliminated by Maria Kirilenko and Nadia Petrova; in the second, they were defeated by Elena Vesnina and Ekaterina Makarova.
In fact, an Italian athlete has previously celebrated a doubles victory at the season-ending women’s tournament. In the 2010 edition, in fact, Flavia Pennetta lifted the trophy, giving Italian tennis its first major triumph at the Finals; however, her partner was not an Italian player but the Argentine Gisela Dulko.
