Jasmine Paolini’s fairytale 2024 season has gotten another chapter after the 28-year-old achieved a new career-high ranking of No. 4 in the world and tied Francesca Schiavone as the highest-ranked Italian female tennis player ever.
When this year started, the Italian was ranked at No. 29 in the world and had only two WTA 250 titles in her collection. Also, she didn’t have any notable results at the Grand Slam or WTA 1000 levels.
Fast forward to late October, Paolini is now a two-time Grand Slam finalist – a WTA 1000 champion – a top-5 player – and also an Olympic gold medalist in women’s doubles.
Although the 2024 Australian Open and Wimbledon runner-up didn’t play last week, she still improved from No. 6 to No. 4 after the points from last year’s WTA Finals dropped off this Monday. And by leaving Elena Rybakina and Jessica Pegula behind her, the 28-year-old also wrote Italian tennis history.
A decade and a half ago, Schiavone was the face of Italian women’s tennis after winning the 2010 French Open and making it No. 4 in the world in 2011.
Paolini is as surprised as anyone about her success
At 28, the new world No. 4 became one of the best players in the game. Naturally, that led to many wondering throughout the…
