‘Tired’ Jasmine Paolini Blames Lack of Focus for Heartbreaking Wimbledon Exit

Jasmine Paolini reached her second Grand Slam singles final last year at Wimbledon. She couldn’t cross the final hurdle in the form of Barbora Krejcikova, who with the win, became a two-time Grand Slam singles champion.

But this year, Paolini failed to defend her points, let alone win the title. She could not make a deep run as an unseeded Kamilla Rakhimova came from a set down to knock the Italian ace out with a 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 scoreline.

Paolini has been playing nonstop tennis since the clay swing. On clay, the 29-year-old played four tournaments, winning the Italian Open in singles, and in doubles, she and compatriot Sara Errani lifted the home title in Rome as well as won the French Open.

After a short break, Paolini kick-started her campaign on the grass swing at the Berlin Open where she suffered an early exit. At the Bad Homburg Open, five-time Grand Slam champion Iga Swiatek knocked her out in straight sets in the semifinals. Following her Wimbledon exit, Paolini blamed lack of focus for her defeat, and she is now planning to skip a tournament to rest and recover after the clay season next season.

I feel a little bit tired right now. It’s tough to accept. It was two intense months before here. Maybe I could skip the first tournament after Roland Garros to rest a little bit. Doesn’t make sense to talk about this kind of things now. I was hoping today to extend on court and try to focus every point. But as I said before, my attention was going up and down.

Jasmine Paolini said at the press conference

Before her second-round exit, Paolini went past Anastasija Sevastova in the first round. Paolini has now become one of the seeded players on both the men’s and women’s sides to suffer an early exit.

Jasmine Paolini reveals if the shocking exits of the top players affected her

Jasmine Paolini was one of the four top 5 seeds to register an early exit in the women’s event. The other players are: second seed Coco Gauff, third seed Jessica Pegula, and fifth seed Qinwen Zheng (they lost in the first round).