Fresh off a historic title run in Rome, Jasmine Paolini carried her momentum into the French Open, grinding out a tough first-round win over China’s Yuan Yue at Roland Garros on Sunday.
The world No. 4 and fourth seed had to dig deep to get past Yuan, eventually prevailing 6-1, 4-6, 6-3 on Court Suzanne-Lenglen. The result extended Paolini’s winning streak to seven matches and underlined her growing authority on clay.
She looked in full control early on, racing through the first set with commanding baseline play and solid serving. But Yuan, a former Top 40 player, grew more aggressive in the second and capitalised on a patch of unforced errors from Paolini to level the match.
Yuan carried that momentum into the deciding set, breaking Paolini to go up 3-2 and threatening to pull off the biggest win of her career. But Paolini held her nerve. The Italian broke back immediately and reeled off the final four games to close out the contest.
With the win, Paolini moves within one victory of matching her career-best winning streak. Her form has surged since lifting the Internazionali BNL d’Italia title earlier this month, becoming the first Italian woman in four decades to claim the Rome crown.
Her resurgence on clay has been a key storyline on the WTA Tour. Last year, she reached her first Grand Slam final in Paris, the first Italian woman to do so since Flavia Pennetta won the 2015 US Open. Weeks later, she backed it up with another deep run, reaching the Wimbledon final.
“It was tough,” Paolini said. “I won quite easy the first set but then she started to play better. A bit of emotions came out.
“I was then 3-2 down with a break but I did it. Hopefully I will play better then next round. We will see.”
In the second round, Paolini will face either Ajla Tomljanovic or Maya Joint, both from Australia. She has never played either opponent.
Elsewhere on Sunday, 18th seed Donna Vekic – a finalist at the Paris Olympics – battled past Russia’s Anna Blinkova 7-5, 6-7(4), 6-1. Vekic struck nine aces during the match, while Blinkova failed to register any, underscoring the Croatian’s edge on serve.