Moving on to lower part del draw (on the field on Monday), Jasmine Paolini, n.7 in the ranking and seeding, a great protagonist in Eastbourne, will debut against the Spanish Sara Sorribes Tormon.54 WTA, who in her six previous participations at Wimbledon never went beyond the second round. The head-to-head record is tied at 1-1 with the Spaniard winning in the round of 16 of the 60 thousand dollar ITF in Brescia in 2015 and Paolini scoring in the semi-final in Palermo last year, again on clay.
The objective is the first victory in the main draw for Paolini, who in the six previous participations – the first three in the qualifying draw, the last three in the main draw – has only won the first match played in the “quali” at Roehampton in 2017. After the defeat in two sets against the German Petkovic in 2021, for the tennis player followed by coach Renzo Furlan the two reached the third set against the Czech Kvitova (Wimbledon champion in 2011 and 2014): luckily for “Jas” this year Petra is in maternity….
Her hypothetical path includes the Belgian Minnen or the British Watson in the second round, the Czech Noskova, n.26 in the ranking (or Andreescu?) in the third, the American Keys, 12th seed, in the round of 16, the other American Gauff , second seed, in the quarterfinals and “seeds” against the Belarusian Sabalenka, n.3 in the draw.
The 28-year-old from Bagni di Lucca is experiencing her best season on the tour highlighted by the first “1000” title won in Dubai, the first Slam final reached at Roland Garros and the entry into the top ten with a stellar “best ranking”, n .7. And this is just to limit ourselves to the singular.
