Photo Source: TTV
Jasmine Paolini found a lot to like about her 6-4, 6-2 win over Coco Gauff on Saturday in Stuttgart.
“Yeah, it was good,” she told on-court emcee Andrea Petkovic with a laugh.
The Italian was virtually flawless after falling behind 4-2 in the opening set, and set a clash with top-seeded Aryna Sabalenka in Sunday’s semifinal round.
“I had chances in the first games, but I was 4-2 down,” she said. “I tried to keep going. It worked pretty well, I started to hit better and feel better – I really enjoyed today, being on court, honestly.”
Paolini was super stingy all evening, committing just 12 unforced errors, compared to 27 for Gauff. She hit one more winner than Gauff as well – 20 to 19.
“I’m the same person, maybe a little bit more confident,” she said. “I believe more in myself. I step on court and I repeat to myself: I can do it.”
Gauff drops to 14-6 on the season, and 2-1 against Paolini, with the loss.
Paolini says that she now has faith in her game against the top players.
After parting ways with longtime coach Renzo Furlan and pairing with Marc Lopez, former Olympic winning doubles partner of Rafael Nadal, she hasn’t skipped a beat. “Before I saw the mountain as so high, and it was tough to believe that I could beat them,” she said. “Now I’m really happy about how I’m playing. My goal always is to fight every match, to be in the match and to have the chances.”
She created plenty of chances on Saturday, and took most of her opportunities. After falling behind 4-2 in the first set she rolled through six games on the trot to lead 6-4, 2-0. She continued to attack Gauff’s serve, allowing the American just one hold of serve in the final set.
Gauff stayed in touch, holding for 3-5, but could not manage a fourth break of serve on the day as Paolini served out the win in one hour and 28 minutes.
Sabalenka played her first match of the week after receiving a walkover from Anastasia Potapova into the quarterfinals. She rallied past Elise Mertens 6-4, 6-1, from a break down in the first, to improve to 5-0 in quarterfinals this year.
Three-time finalist Sabalenka owns a 4-2 lifetime edge over Paolini, and she has won the pair’s last three meetings, all in straight sets.