Meet Jasmine Paolini, First Italian Woman To Reach Wimbledon Finals

28-year-old tennis star Jasmine Paolini has had quite a busy summer, participating in back-to-back Grand Slams, with only four weeks apart. The Italian first reached the finals in the French Roland-Garros tournament and is now showing her prowess at Wimbledon 2024. She defeated Croatia's Donna Vekić in the women's singles semi-final in London on Thursday, the nail-biting match confirming Paolini's participation in the Wimbledon finals on Saturday, making her the first Italian woman to do so.

Jasmine Paolini breaks records

The record-breaking match between Paolini and Vekić is officially the longest Wimbledon semifinal ever, the match lasting for a total time of 2 hours and 51 minutes, the previous record being set by the Serena Williams versus Elena Dementieva semifinal of 2009.

Last month, she finished runners-up to WTA rank number one Iga Swiatek at the Roland-Garros. She is only the fifth tennis player and the first Italian one to pull off this accomplishment, that is, reaching both the French Open and Wimbledon finals in the same season. The previous players to achieve this feat, in order, are Stephanie Graf (1999), Serena Williams (2002, 2015, 2016), Venus Williams (2002), and Justice Henin (2006), the WTA Tennis website lists. 

Who Is Jasmine Paolini?

Paolini was brought up in Central Italy by her Italian father, and her mother, who is of both Polish and Ghanaian lineage. She competed in her maiden tennis tournament at the 2015 Italian Open.

Her first singles title, however, was secured in 2018 while she was representing Italy at the Federation Cup.

In 2022, she had an incredibly successful season with a total of 30 wins from 55 matches. She ended that season with her holding her second singles in hand, at the ITF W100 Les Franqueses del Valles. She dedicated the trophy to her father for supporting her career and helping her with her professional tennis journey.  

She entered the 2024 season with a rank of 26 and won her first WTA 1000 title at the Dubai Duty-Free Tennis Championships in February. Now, nearing the end of the season, she has won her way up to a career-high of Number 7, which she achieved after reaching the finals in the French Open.