In a decade of career, it had almost become her trademark, even one of her limitations: Jasmine Paolini takes her time. Until this Roland-Garros, the Italian, as a fan of “chi va piano va sano”, was used to crossing the thresholds at his own pace. Progress slowly, without skipping steps. He first had to wait five years to enter the world Top 100. Then wait another five years before playing in the second week of a Grand Slam tournament, in January at the Australian Open.
But here she is, at 28 years old, who is now shaking up her habits. Thursday June 6, in the semi-final, the 15e world player, novice at this level, folded her match at full speed. In 1 hour and 13 minutes, she defeated the very precocious Russian Mirra Andreeva (6-3, 6-1), 17 years and 41 days old, much more eager to hatch but visibly too tense by the prospect of reaching for the first time a Grand Slam final.
Applauded in the press room by a handful of enthusiastic Italian journalists, Jasmine Paolini, very smiling as she often is, enjoys it, a bit incredulously. “It seems impossible to me…” A laugh, then she adds: “But it’s reality! » By way of presentation, facing the media who discovered her at Roland-Garros, she just said: “I think I’m a really easy person. I like to smile, to enjoy. Nothing special. Just a normal person. Yes, that’s me. Nothing special. » No excessive ego, far from it, in the “small” player (1.63 m) that almost no one expected so high, starting with her.
“I learned to dream a little later than others”
Since her quarter-final, Wednesday June 5, where she achieved the feat of defeating the Kazakh Elena Rybakina, 4e world player, in three sets and more than two hours, she tells the same story to journalists. Born in Castelnuovo di Garfagnana, Tuscany, the daughter of an Italian father and a mother of Ghanaian and Polish origins, Jasmine Paolini started playing tennis at age 5. ” Just for fun “without excessive ambition.
“I never dreamed of being world number 1 or winning Grand Slams, she explains. Of course, I watched the finals of these tournaments, and I saw Italians winning. But imagining that I would be in this place one day was difficult. » Thursday, on the Philippe-Chatrier court, after her victory, in front of the stands which were already sparse during her match, the young woman had this pretty phrase: “I learned to dream a little later than other players. » For a long time, it was like a ball she was dragging around.
You have 56.83% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.