'Thank goodness it rained for 5 minutes' – Jasmine Paolini turns chaos into comeback to reach Rome semis

Jasmine Paolini reached the semifinals of the Italian Open for the first time in her career in a tense encounter against Diana Shnaider, where the crowd and rain played a key role.

The world No. 6 had a remarkable start to the match, quickly going up 4-0 in the first set in what was a dominant performance on her part. However, Shnaider recovered, winning five consecutive games, and everything ended up being decided in the tie-break in favor of the Russian.

Already in the second set, Shnaider was up 7-5, 4-0 – having won 12 of the previous 13 games. However, a rain delay seemed to take the Russian out of her concentration, in addition to the increasingly strong participation of the crowd who celebrated every point of Paolini with enthusiasm and who several times interrupted Shnaider with noise during her serve. "I was extremely nervous, thank goodness it rained for 5 minutes. I relaxed for a moment, I said let's try,” Paolini said after the match in a conversation with Sky Sports.

In fact, the Russian was in a couple of arguments with the crowd, making gestures and shouting at them during the match. Paolini managed a comeback in the set and won six consecutive games to take the second set 6-4 and send it to a third set.

“Errani gave me some tactical instructions and it worked, but the whole team helped me. I started well, then a bit of confusion, but I stayed focused and brought the match home."

At that moment, Shnaider started with a break and again took the lead 2-0. However, once again the crowd and Paolini's spirit led her to a recovery, both in her game and her morale, and she finished the match splendidly, winning six games in a row again to close out a remarkable victory 6-7(1), 6-4, 6-2 in two hours and twenty-five minutes.

Paolini became the first Italian player to reach the semifinals since her doubles partner Sara Errani did so in 2014 – reaching the final, where she eventually lost to Serena Williams (3-0, 0-6) in what was the American's third title in Rome.