First Ball Forehand

Jasmine Paolini beat Elena Rybakina and praised her Game of Thrones shooting dress

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Jasmine Paolini started the WTA Finals in Riyadh in the best possible way. The Italian defeated Elena Rybakina in straight sets, with the final score of 7-6(5) 6-4, in one hour and 44 minutes of play.

A super performance that will allow her to look with serenity to the rest of the tournament. Her next opponent, considering the other result achieved in the Purple Group, will be Aryna Sabalenka. The Belarusian defeated Qinwen Zheng again, in a match without history.

Jasmine, in the post-match press conference, analyzed the challenge against the Kazakh tennis player, underlining how she is satisfied with how she managed the match.

“I’m very happy. All the matches are tough in this tournament. Elena plays incredible tennis and it’s nice to see her back on tour. It’s always tough against her, because she hits every shot hard. I’m happy with the way I handled the match: it’s my first time at the Finals and it wasn’t easy. Today I won in two sets. I served quite well and I also did well on the return. I’m happy with the way I started the rallies: I tried to stay low and play quickly. I played a solid match. I thank everyone for the support, I saw a lot of Italians here and I want to say thank you,” she explained

Paolini will also take to the court today in the doubles tournament with Sara Errani. The two will face the Americans Caroline Dolehide and Desirae Krawczyk. We recall they played the French Open final and they won the Olympic Gold medal, in Paris.

“The key to the match was to always make her play one more ball, it was my goal from the beginning of the match. Her serve is always dangerous and fast, but I managed to play a solid match without making too many mistakes,” added Paolini.

The 28-year-old Italian also talked about the shooting before the start of the competition: “I think the photo was one of the best ever of the Wta Finals. I’m happy to be in that photo! I could choose between three dresses, but as soon as I saw it I said: it’s him, this is mine. I got a lot of comments that I looked like one of the protagonists of Game of Thrones because of the high-neck dress, but I don’t know the name because I don’t watch it.”

Jasmine will be back on court in a few hours with Sara Errani for the doubles, on which she analyzed: “I’ll go to sleep later tonight, I’ll try to rest in the morning too to recover energy. We’ll play last in the evening, so we’ll train in the afternoon.”

Talking about meeting Neymar, the Italian said: “I follow soccer a bit, my father and brother are big Milan fans, I’m not a huge fan to be honest. When I saw Neymar I said to myself: oh my God, is that him? At first I was a bit shy, but in the end it went well. I even managed to talk to him, it was nice.”

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