“I Never Dreamed,” Jasmine Paolini Opens Up On Reaching The French Open Final

Jasmine Paolini became the first Italian in nine years to reach the French Open Final. She will now face World No.1 Iga Swiatek in Saturday’s final.

This will be the Italian’s first-ever final in her career. In fact, the 28-year-old year has never made it out of the fourth round stage in a Grand Slam event. She labeled her first-ever appearance in a grand slam final as an “impossible achievement“.

“It’s a great feeling to be in a Grand Slam final,” Paolini said. “It seems something impossible, you know, but it’s true”.

Paolini rose to a career-high WTA ranking of 12th last month. Now she is guaranteed to finish in the top 10 of the rankings no matter what happens in Saturday’s final.

“When I started to play tennis, I was not dreaming too much, I was just enjoying playing tennis,” the 28-year-old said. “Then when I started to train to be a professional tennis player, I was dreaming of being a professional player. I never dreamed of being the No.1, Grand Slam Champion…I Never dreamed so big“

The Italian 12th seed defeated some big names on her way to the final. She defeated Mirra Andreeva of Russia in the semi-final and most notably defeated World No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka from Belarus in the quarter-final. The Belarusian had been tipped to lift the Rolland-Garros having won the Australian Open in January.

Paolini has already exceeded all expectations this year at the French Open but she will look to go one step further which will crown her the French Open champion for the first time in her career.

Iga Swiatek would be an overwhelming favorite going into Saturday’s final. The Polish is chasing a record of becoming only the third woman in history to win three French Opens in a row, the others being Henin in 2005-07 and Monica Seles in 1990-92.

Swiatek and Paolini have met each other twice before with the Polish leading 2-0. However, the last meeting was at the US Open 2022 and a lot has changed since, especially knowing that Paolina is enjoying the best run of her entire career.

The Women’s Singles Final on Saturday will take place at Court Philippe-Chatrier.

Jasmine Paolini has also reached the Women’s Doubles Final alongside her compatriot Sara Errani and they will face No.5 seeds Coco Gauff of the United States and Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic in Sunday’s final.