French Open sensation Jasmine Paolini admits she didn’t dream big as a little girl and she was “surprised” when listening to Novak Djokovic’s first interview and the Serb saying as a seven-year-old boy that his goal was to become “a champion” in tennis one day.
World No. 15 Paolini, who turned 28 in January, is enjoying the best tennis days of her career as she is set for her first Grand Slam final after beating Mirra Andreeva 6-3 6-1 in the French Open semifinal. By reaching the French Open final, Paolini – who achieved a career-high ranking of No. 12 on May 6th – also earned a top-10 spot for the first time in her career as she is guaranteed to be ranked at least No. 7 on Monday.
Earlier this year, Paolini also won her first WTA 1000 title in Dubai. And if Paolini upsets Iga Swiatek in the French Open final, she will become a Grand Slam champion – a WTA 1000 winner – and also a top-10 player in just four months.
Before all of this happened for Paolini, she broke into the top-100 only in late 2019 and reached the top-50 for the first time in early 2022. Also, Paolini won her first WTA title in 2021.
Paolini: When I started with tennis, I didn’t dream too much…
“When I started to play…
