Miracles no more: Roland-Garros semi-finalist Paolini has belief that she belongs

The best season of Jasmine Paolini’s career has continued with a semi-final run at Roland-Garros. Paolini credits self belief with her rise up the rankings.

Jasmine Paolini – Federico Pestellini / Panoramic

Ricky Dimon

June 5, 2024

Jasmine Paolini advanced to the semi-finals at Roland-Garros on Wednesday, booking her spot there by upsetting Elena Rybakina in three sets.

It continues a remarkable 2024 campaign for the 28-year-old, who also captured a 1000-point title in Dubai and reached the round of 16 at the Australian Open. She is up to No 15 in the WTA rankings and will break into the top 10 regardless of her result against Mirra Andreeva in the semi-finals on Thursday.

Before when I was playing against the top players, I was like, ‘okay, I need a miracle to win this match.’
Jasmine Paolini

Paolini credits self belief — even though it took a while — for her improvements.

“I think I started to play better with more consistency last year, let’s say in the middle (of) July,” the Italian reflected. “I think match by match I felt more convinced that I can play at the higher level. But it was a process. It’s not like I switched something; it was a process.

“As I (have) said many times, I step on court and I say to myself that I have a chance to win the match. Before it was, like…sometimes, for example, when I was playing against the top players, I was like, ‘okay, I need a miracle to win this match.’ So I was already losing the match before even playing.”

Dating back to the start of 2019, Paolini has improved her ranking every year except one. She was No 190 at the end of 2018, No 117 at the end of 2019, No 95 at the end of 2020, No 53 at the end of 2021, No 59 at the end of 2022 and No 30 at the end of 2023.

Now — in her late 20s — she will soon find herself in the top 10.

PAOLINI PACKS A PUNCH BEYOND HER SIZE

At 5’4”, Paolini is one of the smaller players on tour — certainly one of the smaller players near the top of the rankings. Perhaps that is part of the reason why the “process” has been a long one.

“I wish I was taller, because I could serve better,” she admitted after beating Rybakina (who is 6’0”). But I think I accept that I have to do with my own body. I mean, I’m short. Okay, we try to [not] make it a problem. We try to do something different to improve other aspects like (the) serve. I wish I was taller, but it’s okay.”

It’s certainly okay now. Paolini has learned to make the improvements in other aspects of her game, and it’s all working in 2024. The most important aspect, of course, is self belief.

“I know that for myself it was a long process,” Paolini explained. “I think I had to believe in each step I did. For example, the first time I was top 100, now I think that I could [have] reached that goal [earlier] — but maybe I wasn’t ready. I don’t know. So I think every step that I did, I did in that moment because I believed in that moment that I could do it. The problem — I think, let’s say, ‘problem’ — [was] that I wasn’t believing that I could reach the result that I’m reaching now when I was younger.”