The 21st century
Italy · born Castelnuovo di Garfagnana, 1996 · right-handed · Wimbledon finalist 2024
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F
Wimbledon runner-up, 2024
2h 51m
Longest women's semi-final at Wimbledon, 2024
QF
Wimbledon quarter-final, 2026
0
Tour-level grass match wins before 2024
Born in Castelnuovo di Garfagnana on 4 January 1996, Paolini took up tennis at five. She won her first WTA title at Portorož in 2021, but her rise came at 28: in 2024 she won the Dubai WTA 1000 event, reached the finals of the French Open and Wimbledon, and took Olympic gold in doubles with Sara Errani in Paris. She reached a career-high No. 4 in October 2024. In 2025 she won the Italian Open in Rome and the French Open doubles with Errani, and she helped Italy win the Billie Jean King Cup in 2024 and 2025. In 2026, troubled by a foot injury, she lost her opening match at Eastbourne, then reached the Wimbledon quarter-finals, beating Alexandra Eala before losing to Marta Kostyuk.
| Wimbledon singles | Runner-up 2024; quarter-final 2026; second round 2025; first round 2021, 2022 and 2023 |
|---|---|
| Wimbledon 2024 | Beat Emma Navarro 6-2, 6-1 in 58 minutes in the quarter-final and Donna Vekić 2-6, 6-4, 7-6 (8) in the semi-final, then lost the final to Barbora Krejčíková 2-6, 6-2, 4-6. The first Italian woman to reach a Wimbledon singles semi-final |
| Wimbledon 2026 | Seeded 13th, beat Robin Montgomery, Viktorija Golubic, Maria Sakkari and Alexandra Eala, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3, then lost to Marta Kostyuk in the quarter-final. The first Italian woman to reach more than one Wimbledon quarter-final |
| Other grass events | Bad Homburg semi-final 2025, lost to Iga Świątek. Berlin doubles runner-up 2025 with Sara Errani |
| Wimbledon doubles | Third round 2024 with Sara Errani |
| Grass titles | None yet |
"Maybe I didn't realize before, but my coach was telling me that I could play well here."
The person behind the player.
Wimbledon 2024
Before 2024 she had three first-round exits at Wimbledon, two of them against Petra Kvitová, and no tour-level win on grass. Her coach kept telling her she had the game for the surface, and she did not believe him. After beating Emma Navarro 6-2, 6-1 to reach the semi-finals she had changed her mind: "Yeah, I'm enjoying grass now."
Source: WTARoland Garros 2024
After beating Elena Rybakina, 21 cm taller, in the Paris quarter-final, she was asked about her height. She said she would have liked to be taller so she could serve better, but accepted the body she had: "I'm small, OK, but we try not to make it a problem." A month later she was in the Wimbledon final.
Source: Tennis MajorsWimbledon 2024 · Centre Court
Krejčíková beat her in the final a month after Iga Świątek had beaten her in the French Open final. On court she managed a smile: "Today I am a little bit sad. I try to keep smiling because I have to remember today is still a good day." She recalled watching the final as a child and "cheering for Federer".
Source: beIN SportsParis 2024
Later that summer she and Sara Errani won the Olympic doubles at Roland Garros, beating Mirra Andreeva and Diana Shnaider 2-6, 6-1, 10-7 in the final. The pair went on to win the French Open doubles in 2025, and Paolini led Italy to the Billie Jean King Cup in 2024 and 2025.
Source: WikipediaWimbledon 2026 · Fourth round
Roger Federer watched her fourth-round match against Alexandra Eala. "Please stay focused, don't think about the fact that he's here," she told herself, and won 6-4, 4-6, 6-3, coming to the net 27 times. Afterwards she said: "I want to thank Roger, because he's my idol."
Source: Tennis MajorsFree membership: player news, the grass court Atlas, the rankings and the grass season calendar.
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