Until recently, Jasmine Paolini was largely unknown to Africans and much of the world. She drew global attention when she reached a historic final in Paris at Roland Garros 2024 last month. Since then, she has continued to make history. She beat American Emma Navarro in just two sets (6-2 and 6-1) in under an hour en route to the semi-finals of Wimbledon 2024 this month.
Prior to this, no Italian had ever reached the semifinals in the Wimbledon tournament, and only five had gone as far as the quarters. The Italian tennis players who have gone as far as the quarters include Lucia Valerio in 1933, Laura Golarsa in 1989, Silvia Farina in 2003, Francesca Schiavone in 2009, and Camila Giorgi in 2018.
“Outstanding to win a match on this court, I’m so happy I don’t know what to say,” she said in an interview after the match, according to Glamour. “It’s a dream to go to the semifinals. When I was a child, I used to see such important matches from home, and now it’s really strange to get there.”
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The 28-year-old, who is currently seventh in the WTA world rankings, reached the finals on Thursday, July 11, after her match against Croatia’s Vekić. She won two out of three sets to reach the finals after losing the first set.
At two hours and 51 minutes, it was the longest women’s singles semifinal in Wimbledon history, CNN reported. Her win also means Paolini is the first woman since Serena Williams in 2016 to reach the final of the French Open and Wimbledon in the same season, the report added.
Born on January 4, 1996, Paolini has Ghanaian roots. Her dad is Italian, while her mother is half Polish and half Ghanaian. Paolini’s maternal grandmother is Polish, and her maternal grandfather is Ghanaian. The tennis star grew up between Łódź, her mother’s hometown, and Bagni di Lucca, where her father ran a bar. Young Jasmine was introduced to tennis thanks to her dad and uncle Adriano, according to Glamour.
She decided to turn her passion for playing tennis into a professional career when she went to college at the age of 15. She initially faced rejection over her height, but she was unfazed and pushed on to achieve her dream of playing tennis on the world stage.
“Height is not a huge deficit,” she said in an interview in 2018. “In tournaments, there are also some players who are too tall. Like everything, it has its pros and cons. The only question I ask myself is, how I would serve if I were taller? Maybe I would serve a little better…but maybe I would be less agile.”
She made her debut on the world stage at the Internazionali di Roma qualifiers at age 19. In 2017, she had her first participation in the qualifiers of a Slam. However, her turning point came when she got coached by Renzo Furlan, who was initially following her part-time.
In 2023, Coach Furlan dedicated himself to Paolini, and the results were instant. “I am proud to have believed in this relationship despite some not easy moments,” Paolini said a year ago. “The fact that he started to follow me on a permanent basis, both in training and in tournaments for me represented a turning point, as we managed to give continuity to the work.”
She broke into the top 100 thanks to her final at the ITF tournament in Tokyo in 2019. She would win her first title by beating Alison Riske-Amritraj of the United States in Portorož, Slovenia. By 2023, she was ranked among the top 50 in the world. Today, she ranks among the top 10.
