Jasmine Paolini has lifted her second WTA 1000 title after beating Coco Gauff to win the Italian Open.
Paolini made history in Rome after becoming the first home champion at the Italian Open in 40 years.
Although her final victory was more straightforward, Paolini had to come back from some significant deficits in some previous matches.
After winning her first singles title of the year, Paolini was praised by Gauff as they both look ahead to the second major tournament of the season.
Jasmine Paolini does not consider herself a favourite for Roland Garros
Paolini reached the Roland Garros final last year, where she would lose in straight sets to Iga Swiatek.
More recently Paolini split with her long-term coach and is now working alongside Marc Lopez, with the Italian Open their first title together.
Despite heading into the clay court major in strong form, Paolini does not believe that she is one of the favourites for Roland Garros.
“To be honest, I don’t consider myself a favourite at Roland-Garros,” Paolini said in her press conference. “I’ll try to do my best. I’ll go there and take it match by match. Even if I had stayed with Renzo Furlan I wouldn’t have expected to bounce back so quickly.
“I don’t know if this was the best match of my career, but I played at a very high level. I moved really well and struck the ball cleanly. My mind was clear, and I felt good from the start.
“In the end, I’m happy with how I handled everything because there was a lot of tension before the match, and it all went well.”
Jasmine Paolini will be ranked ahead of Iga Swiatek at Roland Garros
After winning one of the biggest titles of her career, Paolini will move back up to match her career-high ranking of world number four.
This means that she will be seeded ahead of the aforementioned Swiatek, who has recently been struggling for form.
Swiatek has won the Roland Garros title in four of the past five years, but looks to be vulnerable heading into this year’s tournament.
| Roland Garros Seeds | WTA Player |
| 1 | Aryna Sabalenka |
| 2 | Coco Gauff |
| 3 | Jessica Pegula |
| 4 | Jasmine Paolini |
| 5 | Iga Swiatek |
| 6 | Mirra Andreeva |
| 7 | Madison Keys |
| 8 | Qinwen Zheng |
The only other former Roland Garros champions entered in the 2025 women’s singles draw are Jelena Ostapenko and Barbora Krejcikova.
Paolini will look to continue her momentum on from Rome into Roland Garros, which begins on Sunday May 25.
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