Jasmine Paolini: How she became a finalist at the French Open and Wimbledon

Modern tennis is all about greatness.

Big three. Big four; new big four. Big serve. Big game. Bigger-than-ever players hitting bigger-than-ever balls.

Modern tennis, Jasmine Paolini would like to have a word with you. At this most unlikely of times, Paolini is the tallest thing in women's tennis at 160cm.

For the second time in five weeks, Paolini, the diminutive Italian, has forced everyone in the sport to forget everything they thought they knew about the modern version of tennis. She has reminded them of one of the things, perhaps the thing, that makes tennis special.

Champions come in all shapes and sizes.

Unbelievable, Paolini said in a daze on Thursday night after beating Croatia's Donna Vekic 2-6, 6-4, 7-6 to reach the Wimbledon final, five weeks after achieving the same feat at Roland Garros in Paris.

Just over a year ago, Paolini was already in her mid-20s and hovering between 50 and 80 in the rankings, where she has spent much of her career. Even the most dedicated tennis fans knew the Italian as a good, tenacious tour player, but never a likely Grand Slam winner.

Even when she won the WTA Masters 1000 in Dubai, one of the most important tournaments of the year, the general thinking was that women's tennis tends to produce random champions throughout the calendar, players who perform well for a week based on a favorable draw and end up lifting a trophy.

Now Paolini, a 28-year-old from Tuscany with one of the world's largest curls, which she ties into her finest hair when she plays, has risen to No. 7 in the world rankings and No. 3 in the race to the year-end WTA Finals in Riyadh. She will be in the top five in the rankings when Wimbledon is over.

She is another late-blooming Italian, in the vein of Francesca Schiavone and Flavia Pennetta. She and her compatriot, Lorenzo Musetti, have turned this Wimbledon two-dayer into a shotmaker’s delight, a celebration of variety and precision over speed and power at a time when bashing is all the rage in tennis.

Italians came for Jannik Sinner, the world number 1 and one of the favorites for the men's title. Physically hampered, he lost in the quarterfinals to Daniil Medvedev.

The Italians stayed for Paolini and Musetti.

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Musetti, 22, said he always played that way growing up, then joined the ATP Tour three years ago and began trying to hang with the testosterone-fueled champions of the era.

Now, particularly on the grass of Wimbledon, which rewards players who can change the pace, add slice and spin and move with finesse, he has returned to what made him famous as a junior. In his quarter-final against Taylor Fritz on Wednesday, he sliced ​​Fritz's big serve and thumping forehand to ribbons with a seductive mix of looping, spinning balls that left Fritz tripping over his feet and often guessing wrongly about what was coming next.

At one point in the match I felt from the baseline that I could win, let's say, every point, Musetti said. He wasn't in a good position with all my variation.

On Thursday it was Vekics' turn to suffer and lose in a battle of power versus flair, this time against Paolini, however unlikely that may have seemed a few months ago.

When she began the grass court swing in 2024, Paolini had gone nearly a decade on tour without advancing past the first round at Wimbledon. She had never won a tour-level match on grass until last month in Eastbourne.

She was made of clay, like so many Italians, and she assumed that this green, soft stuff would never form her surface.

Her regular coach, Renzo Furlan, insisted otherwise. He said she could be successful on grass, especially since her movement has improved so much over the past year thanks to working with a specialized fitness coach.

Furlan, who hails from Veneto, is far from being one of those famous super coaches who can become almost as famous as the players they guide. For years, Italian players have recognized him as an expert strategist who learned the game from Ricardo Piatti, one of those super coaches. Furlan reached number 19 in the world rankings during his playing days in the 90s.

Always fast, Paolini has focused more than ever on running, strength training and injury prevention, and, most importantly for the grass, on her movement.

“Every day we try to do a little bit,” said Paolini, whose emotional and candid demeanor on the pitch has made her an overnight cult figure with the British public.

The fist pumps, the incessant stream of forza, forza, forza point after point, and the cheers when she accomplishes the impossible have made her something fans love, but players can't beat.

Thursday's victory over Vekic had all the hallmarks of Paolini's recent triumphs, starting with her striding onto the court with an opponent who was somewhere between six and twelve inches taller than her.

Paolini’s routines flowed from there, all built around a determined and tactical dismantling of a player who far outperforms the eye test of what makes a star athlete. Paolini proves every day that that test is more meaningless.

She put it best last month in Paris, when asked if her status was a superpower that ran counter to her intuition.

I wish I was taller, but it's okay, I'm not, she said. We have to make do with what I have.

She did that and more on Thursday, starting with a steadfast refusal to give up in a match where she trailed until the final games. She trailed a set and won the second. Twice in the third set, she trailed a service break before finding a way to break back.

The point that will likely keep Vekic up at night came late in the second set, when Paolini was serving at 15-15. Vekic pulled Paolini in and then lobbed deep to the postage-stamp-sized back-right corner of the court. Paolini scrambled after it.

Somehow she got her strings on the hook and hit another lob high to the front of the court. Good things can happen when you let the opponent hit another shot, no matter how small the chance. If you don't, the chances are zero.

Vekic let the ball bounce but then shot wide.

In the blink of an eye, the Croatian went from having a golden opportunity to break free and serve out the match to fearing she had blown her best chance of the day.

Paoline's embrace of her talents extends to her service. At her size, it’s physically impossible to rely on a flat bomb first serve, so she moves it around the service box, keeping her opponents guessing whether she’s going to the center, out, or to the body. It’s not even clear what her go-to serve is when she’s under pressure, sowing doubts in the minds of her rivals when the doubts should be in hers.

In her first five matches, Paolini had served wide 110 times, 93 times to the opponent’s body and 121 times to the middle. On Thursday, another day with different goals, her first serve averaged 97.3 mph, compared to 110 for Vekic. Spots over speed.

She's read the book on how to beat shorter players over and over again, and she's written her own book on how to combat it.

Pull her towards you with a drop shot and a lob over her head?

After using her wheels and her engine to catch the ball, she hangs a step or two closer to the service line so she can cover the drop shot. Or she hits the ball deep, and with some pace, and is now close enough to the net that she has cut off the angle and can put her volley into the front of the court.

How about a kick serve that bounces up to her forehead?

Nope. She has sworn off the popular WTA tactic of standing in front of the baseline on second serves and has instead perfected the deep looping return from six feet behind it.

Surely then she cannot match the strength of her opponents?

Wrong again.

Paolini understands her kinetic chain as well as anyone. She knows that power in a tennis stroke starts with a push off the back ankle, goes up through the leg, and starts with hip rotation. Watch her jump into a forehand and free her shoulders in her backhand and admire the flow, but not for too long, because before you know it, the ball is through the court.

And don't even think about tiring her out. In the third set, after Paolini had worn her down for more than two hours, Vekic struggled to catch her breath after every point.

I thought I was going to die, Vekic said. I had so much pain in my arm, in my leg.

Paolini, who played from behind until she could no longer, was bouncing on her toes as she waited for Vekic's serve, ready to play until curfew if necessary.

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The past month has been crazy for me, Paolini said on the court when it was over. She fell in love with tennis when she was five. All these years later, she has found answers to her shortcomings and weaknesses, to the best of her ability.

As a child, she watched Wimbledon on television, where she watched Roger Federer soar across Centre Court every year. Now she is the one doing it.

I always try to remember where I am, she said earlier this week. I can never forget that these are things I dreamed about and even though they seem normal now, they really aren't.

As crazy as it sounds, they are becoming a little more normal every day.

(Top photo: Ben Stansall/AFP via Getty Images)