Exclusive - Jasmine Paolini on her golden breakthrough 2024: "It’s unbelievable to finish the year like that"
The world number four speaks to Olympics.com after finishing her year with Olympic gold and the Billie Jean King Cup title for Italy.
Tennis
Jasmine Paolini will not be forgetting 2024 in a rush.
She ends the year as the world number four in women's tennis, having won both Olympic gold and the Billie Jean King (BJK) Cup with Italy, the latter secured in a 2-0 victory on Wednesday (20 November).
It was the 28-year-old breakthrough tennis star who won the Azzurri’s championship point, comprehensively beating Rebecca Sramkova of Slovakia 6-2, 6-1 in the final to seal Italy’s fifth women’s World Cup title.
“It's unbelievable to finish the year like that with this trophy and it's a dream season,” Paolini told Olympics.com after her BJK Cup triumph in Málaga, Spain.
“It's been a very good season to finish with the trophy, it's perfect, and I'm really happy and really grateful to wear the blue Italian shirt, so it's always a pleasure for me to play for Italy.”
Paolini won women’s doubles gold alongside Sara Errani at the Olympic Games Paris 2024, the pair also winning the deciding match to book Italy’s place in the BJK Cup final.
At the end of a standout season for Italian tennis – Jannik Sinner has become the country’s first singles world number one – an exciting few years in national sport lie ahead.
The next Olympic Winter Games will be held in the Italy, with Milano Cortina 2026 less than a year-and-a-half away.
Paolini said of the upcoming Games and her winter sport interests, “Of course it's nice to for me, the Olympics, it's also really nice to watch. I like to watch skiing, but I don’t ski.
“I never tried and it's one of the first things I'm going to do after I retire [from] tennis, because it's a bit dangerous if you don't know how to ski. I wish good luck for Milano Cortina and that I think it's going to be a really, really good Olympics.”