Jasmine Paolini

Jasmine Paolini – Italy's bundle of energy

Italian tennis player Jasmine Paolini was born on 4 January 1996 in Castelnuovo di Garfagnana, a town in Tuscany, and started playing tennis at the age of five. Her mother Jacqueline is half Polish, half Ghanaian, while her father Ugo is Italian. Paolini's father, together with her uncle, introduced her and her brother William, who still plays tennis, to the sport.

At 15, Jasmine Paolini moved to Tirrenia near Pisa for better training facilities. She won her only junior title in January 2013 at the Wilson ITF Junior Classic in Bergheim. The 1.63m right-hander made her junior Grand Slam debut at the US Open that same year, reaching the third round, and did the same at the Australian Open in January 2014.

Paolini's first steps as a professional

Thanks to a wildcard into qualifying in Rome, Jasmine Paolini made her WTA Tour debut in 2015, but lost in the first round. She won her first ITF title at the end of the 2016 season, after losing three finals in a row. At the following year's Australian Open in 2017, she took part in Grand Slam qualifying for the first time.

After several failed attempts to qualify for the main draw of smaller WTA tournaments, Jasmine Paolini landed the biggest success of her career to that point in spring, winning the ITF tournament in Marseille. The resulting rise in the rankings meant she went on to qualify for the main draw at smaller WTA events, making her tour debut in Båstad, Sweden.

There, however, she went out in the first round. Paolini recorded her first WTA-level win the following year in the Colombian capital Bogotá, beating Australia's Lizette Cabrera.

Jasmine Paolini's game: a winning mix of power and precision

At just 1.63m tall, Jasmine Paolini is one of the smaller players on the WTA Tour. Given all the taller power hitters such as Iga Swiatek, Aryna Sabalenka or Elena Rybakina, you might assume she'd stand little chance against such heavyweights. But the carefree Italian refuses to be intimidated. Her game is packed with power, particularly her razor-sharp forehand, which she wields to devastating effect.

Yet the right-hander, who plays a two-handed backhand, also masters the more delicate side of the game brilliantly, regularly producing drop shots with pinpoint precision. What Paolini lacks in height, she makes up for with blistering speed and outstanding agility. Covering the whole court comes easily to her. These strengths really come into their own on clay, her favourite surface, thanks to all the sliding it allows.

A quiet climber

After several years lurking in the lower reaches of the world rankings, Jasmine Paolini's rise began in 2021. Unlike many of her rivals, though, she crept up towards the top of the game rather quietly. Following a weaker 2020 season, Paolini improved significantly the year after. At the French Open she reached the second round of a Grand Slam for the first time, and in Portoroz, Slovenia, she won her first WTA title.

Paolini went on to reach several semi-finals and finals, finishing a season inside the world's top 50 for the first time. She broke into the very top of women's tennis in the 2024 season. At the end of February she won her biggest title to date, the WTA 1000 event in Dubai. Things also started going noticeably better at the majors. Having never previously gone beyond the second round of a Grand Slam, she reached the fourth round at the Australian Open and made it all the way to the final at both the French Open and Wimbledon.

This allowed the diminutive power player to firmly establish herself inside the WTA top ten, and she no longer needs to qualify for Grand Slams or Masters-level events.

Paolini also shines in doubles

Alongside her growing success in singles, Paolini has increasingly been making waves in doubles too. Partnering fellow Italian and doubles legend Sara Errani, things have been going really well since late 2023. The pair won their first titles together in Monastir and Linz, before triumphing on home soil for the first time at the prestigious Rome Masters.

The duo also competed at the 2024 French Open, reaching the final there too, just like Paolini did in singles. They ultimately lost in straight sets to Coco Gauff and Katerina Siniakova. Even so, their strong performances propelled them into the world's top 20 doubles pairings in a short space of time.

Jasmine Paolini's tennis equipment

Playing tennis as successfully as Jasmine Paolini takes more than a strong team of coaches and support staff – it also takes a reliable partner for tennis gear. With ASICS for her tennis shoes and clothing, and Yonex for her rackets, strings and bags, the Italian has made the perfect choice.

The Yonex VCORE 100 tournament racket, with its AERO TRENCH and LINER TECH technologies, delivers an incredible level of spin. The matching Team Racquet Bag not only offers enough space for up to 12 rackets, but also has plenty of room to comfortably fit Paolini's tennis clothing, shoes and accessories.

For secure footing, maximum mobility and top comfort, Jasmine Paolini wears the ASICS Gel Resolution, which perfectly supports her running-intensive style of play. You'll of course find the rackets, shoes, clothing and more that help this Italian bundle of energy cause a stir on tour right here in our tennis online shop – with the fair terms you'd expect from Tennis-Point.