Jasmine Paolini becomes first Italian woman to reach semifinals of Wimbledon in Open Era

Jasmine Paolini has stormed past Emma Navarro, 6-2, 6-1, to reach the semifinals of Wimbledon for the first time in her career.

And it’s historic—she’s the first Italian woman to reach the semifinals of Wimbledon in the Open Era.

She was the fifth Italian woman in the Open Era to reach the quarterfinals at the grass-court major, but the four who preceded her were all stopped a round short of the semifinals.

ITALIAN WOMEN IN WIMBLEDON QUARTERFINALS (Open Era):

• Laura Golarsa in 1989 (l. to Evert in QFs)
• Silvia Farina Elia in 2003 (l. to Clijsters in QFs)
• Francesca Schiavone in 2009 (l. to Dementieva in QFs)
• Camila Giorgi in 2018 (l. to S.Williams in QFs)
• Jasmine Paolini in 2024 (d. Navarro in QFs)

Navarro had won all three of the pair’s previous meetings going into their Centre Court clash, and it looked like the American might be on her way to another win this time as she got the first break of the match in the third game to go up 2-1, but the No. 7-seeded Paolini took complete charge from there, breaking right back and eventually winning 11 of the next 12 games to roll past the No. 19 seed and punch her ticket into the semis.

Paolini finished the match with 19 winners to just 12 unforced errors, and didn’t allow Navarro a single point on her second serve (0/10). She also converted five of her six break point opportunities.

Awaiting the Italian in Thursday’s semifinals will be unseeded Donna Vekic of Croatia, a 5-7, 6-4, 6-1 winner over New Zealand’s Lulu Sun, who was a qualifier into the main draw.

Paolini leads Vekic in their head-to-head series, 2-1, though this will be their first career meeting away from hard courts.