This Cinderella story would almost inevitably end on the red clay in the Roland Garros final. After all, Jasmine Paolini, a 16-1 underdog, faced the Iga Swiatek, the Queen of Clay. Casual tennis fans may not have even heard of the late-blooming 28-year-old Paolini, who had never made it past the second round of a Major until this year, when the Italian reached the fourth round of the Australian Open.
She then showed it was no fluke by winning a WTA 1000 title in Dubai. Her breakthrough year peaked in Paris where she outlasted 2022 Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina in the quarterfinals and outclassed fast-rising 17-year-old Mirra Andreeva to meet Swiatek in the final. Although small in stature at 5’4”, Paolini is big in the intangibles: competitiveness, poise, and more recently, confidence.
Unlike some players who have exuded a priori confidence like Jimmy Connors and Serena Williams before they achieved great results, Jasmine was bogged down by an inferiority complex since turning pro in 2011. It took career-changing success this season to change her mentality. After taking out Rybakina, she confided, “Honestly, I don’t know why I didn’t believe in myself.
” Renzo Furlan would help instill that much-needed confidence. A former pro ranked No. 19, Furlan began coaching Jasmine in 2015, and they were immediately simpatico.
“Like me, she is someone who wants to experience first-hand, in the field, with the results, the goodness of the work that is done in training,�.