Jasmine Paolini does not let her lack of vertical reach defeat her. At 5’4”, the twenty-eight-year-old Italian packs a powerful punch. She made her professional debut in 2011 and did not win her first title until 2021. I have to confess; I did not see this one coming at all. Perhaps she had the luckiest of breaks when the fourth ranked player on the WTA tour, Elena Rybakina, withdrew from the tournament.

Jasmine Paolini Believed In Her Game

Give Paolini credit, she defeated three quality players to get to the quarterfinals, where she got the walkover. She fought back in her very first match, coming back to win after losing the first set. The Italian impressed me because it was all Anna Kalinskaya for most of the match. The Russian served to win the biggest title of her career and the pressure got to her. She never recovered and was broken again to lose the match and the title. Paolini got a little revenge for her loss to the Russian at the Australian Open.

Top 100 ATP & WTA Ranking Changes

ATP & WTA Top 10 Ranking Changes

ATP: there were no changes with the top ten members. The current top four players are: [1] Novak Djokovic; [2] Carlos Alcaraz; [3] Jannik Sinner; and [4] Daniil Medvedev.

WTA: there were several changes in the top ten. Qinwen Zheng and Jelena Ostapenko each fell one spot to #8 and #10, respectively. Marketa Vondrousova climbed up one spot to #7. Maria Sakkari is back in the top ten at #9 and Karolina Muchova fell out of the top ten. The current top four players are: [1] Iga Swatek; [2] Aryna Sabalenka; [3] Coco Gauff; and [4] Elena Rybakina.

SOURCE OF IMAGES: Getty Images