It’s fair to say that 2024 has been quite a year for Italian tennis.
And especially for Jasmine Paolini, who capped the best season of her career by winning the deciding match of the Billie Jean King Cup final against Slovakia to secure Italy’s first title in 11 years.
In 2024, Paolini won her first WTA 1000 singles event at the Dubai Tennis Championships, two WTA 1000 doubles titles, Olympic doubles gold and reached three Grand Slam finals, two in singles and one in doubles.
The 28-year-old’s success propelled her to career No. 4 in the world in singles, the highest ranking in history for an Italian and career No. 9 in doubles.
“It’s a joke,” Paolini laughed when asked to put his year into words. CNN SportsThis is Amanda Davies.
“Ending like this is the perfect ending, so I’m really happy,” she added. “Last year we lost in the final; this year we won the title and it’s incredible.
“At the start of the tournament I wasn’t thinking about the title because it’s hard, it’s a long tournament and anything can happen – so today I’m really happy to have this trophy in our hands.”
The Billie Jean King Cup – formerly known as the Fed Cup – is a women’s team event in which competing countries play two singles matches and a best-of-three doubles match.
This year’s finals were held simultaneously alongside the men’s Davis Cup in Malaga, Spain, and Italy reached the final after beating Japan in the quarter-final and Poland in the semi-final.
Italy finally beat Slovakia 2-0 in Wednesday’s final thanks to Lucia Bronzetti’s earlier victory over Viktória Hrunčáková and then Paolini’s 6-2, 6-1 victory over Rebecca Šramková, ending the team’s heartbreak. last year’s final loss to Canada.
But given that much of Paolini’s success in 2024 is due to the doubles, of course she didn’t achieve it alone.
Alongside him on the court is the calming presence of veteran Sara Errani, who has just completed her 22nd year on tour as a professional.
A strong doubles specialist, Errani is a former world number one and part of an exclusive group of women to have completed the “Golden Slam” of their doubles career – winning all four Grand Slam tournaments and Olympic gold.
But the 38-year-old has also enjoyed plenty of success on the singles circuit, winning nine titles and reaching the 2012 French Open final, while rising to No. 5 in the world.
This is the fourth time in his career that Errani has won the BJK Cup – and the first in 11 years – and his experience has been invaluable to Italy not only in this competition, but also at the Paris Olympics.
In 2024, Paolini and Errani are undefeated when wearing the blue jersey of the Italian national team.
“It’s really special,” Errani said of his new victory. “It’s incredible. It was a great week, I’m really proud. We had fun, we played good tennis. We are so happy.
“This year we didn’t lose with the Italian t-shirt, so it was incredible. It’s a dream come true and playing for our country is always very special.
“I’m giving it my all – it’s so special.” We are really proud.
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