Paolini overturns double break to reach last 16 in Wuhan

Jasmine Paolini has advanced to the second round of the Wta 1000 tournament in Wuhan, the last event of the season for the women’s circuit, beating Czech player Nikola Bartunkova by a score of 7-6, 6-3. The news currently comes from a single source (Sky Sport); no independent confirmation is available.

The figure that tells the story of the match is the comeback in the first set: down by two breaks at 2-5, Paolini fought back to the tie-break, closing it out 7-5. A deficit that at this level of tournament could have ended the match in a few exchanges, but which instead turned into the turning point.

The ability to hold the point in moments of maximum pressure is not an isolated detail: at Wta 1000 level, where the number of break points conceded in situations of disadvantage tends to be decisive, recovering a double break in a set remains a statistical exception rather than the norm. Paolini did this without conceding further breaks until the tie-break.

In the last 16, the Tuscan player, seeded 15th, will face Britain’s Sonay Kartal, ranked 170th in the world: on paper Paolini starts as the favorite, but the precedent in Wuhan shows how a gap in ranking does not always translate into a straightforward scoreline.

The tournament is also progressing positively in the doubles draw, where Paolini is paired with Sara Errani: the two Italians are in the quarterfinals after beating the pair Mihalikova/Nicholls by a score of 4-6, 6-2, 10-5, another match decided in the third set after losing the first.

Wuhan closes out the regular season of the women’s circuit before the Finals, and for Paolini it represents an opportunity to end the year with a positive run on two fronts, singles and doubles, in a tournament where she has already shown she can withstand a disadvantage.