WHAT HAPPENED: The career-best results just keep coming in for No. 5 seed Jasmine Paolini.
Perhaps the hottest player in women’s tennis this year, Paolini notched a convincing 6-3, 6-4 win over No. 30 seed Yulia Putintseva on Saturday, putting her into the fourth round of the 2024 US Open for the first time in her career.
The victory makes her the first Italian player to reach the Round of 16 at all Grand Slam events in a single year, having reached the fourth round at the Australian Open and the finals at both Roland Garros and Wimbledon this year.
“This year started well, I have to say. Then I started to believe more in myself and believe I could play well in the Slams, because before this I never passed the first two rounds,” she said with a smile after her match. “I really enjoyed playing here, in front of this crowd in a big stadium.”
Against Putintseva on Saturday afternoon, the diminutive Italian wonder woman was a force to be reckoned with. She covered every inch of the court with her signature foot speed, and her aggressive groundstrokes packed a punch that kept Putintseva on the defensive.
“Today I think I was pretty solid with being calm,” Paolini said post-match. “I just tried to play my game. She's an unbelievable player, she defends very well.”
Playing in the US Open third round for the first time, Paolini navigated the uncharted territory with ease at the start of the match. After the Italian took a 3-1 lead, tensions rose as both women traded four consecutive breaks of serve. Paolini held steady in the ninth game to convert on her first set point and close it out, 6-3.
A single early break of serve in the second set gave Paolini a 2-1 edge, an advantage she held the rest of the way despite a solid attacking game from the former 2020 US Open quarterfinalist Putintseva. Paolini finished the match with 22 winners and won nearly half of her return points at 48%.
WHAT IT MEANS: Paolini’s rapid rise in 2024 has been nothing short of spectacular. In addition to reaching the Australian Open fourth round and the Roland Garros and Wimbledon finals, her laundry list of accomplishments in 2024 also include a title in Dubai, a semifinal appearance in Eastbourne, breaking into the WTA’s Top 10 and winning Olympic gold in women’s doubles with Sara Errani.
The amount of improvement in Paolini’s performance is all the more impressive considering the fact that prior to this year, Paolini had never gotten past the second round of a major.
As she continues her campaign at the US Open, Paolini will next face Karolina Muchova in the Round of 16. While the Italian has not beaten the No. 52 Muchova in three previous meetings, all three came long before Paolini’s meteoric rise in the rankings, in 2018 and 2021. One of those meetings was a 2018 contest in US Open qualifying rounds.
MATCH POINT: Paolini owns the most Grand Slam match wins on the women’s tour this season with 18. The only other player, man or woman, who has more is Carlos Alcaraz with 19.
