Jasmine Paolini - tennis star

Breakthrough year saw Tuscan soar in rankings

Jasmine Paolini reached two Grand Slam
finals during an exceptional 2024 season

The tennis player Jasmine Paolini, whose outstanding 2024 season saw her match the highest world singles ranking attained by any Italian in the history of women’s tennis, was born on this day in 1996 in Castelnuovo di Garfagnana, an historic town around 45km (28 miles) north of the city of Lucca.

Having reached two Grand Slam finals, won her second career WTA 1000 title and helped the Italian squad become Billie Jean King Cup champions in the course of the year, Paolini climbed to No 4 in the world, equalling the achievement of the 2010 French Open champion Francesca Schiavone.

A popular player with fans for her sunny attitude on court, she also won a gold medal in doubles at the 2024 Paris Olympics, partnering Italy’s all-time leading women’s doubles player, Sara Errani.

Having finished runner-up to world No 1 Iga Swiatek in the 2024 French Open final and to the Czech player Barbora Krejcikova on the Wimbledon grass five weeks later, Paolini’s next target is to win her first Grand Slam title.

Schiavone and Flavia Pennetta, who was US Open champion in 2015, are the only Italian women so far to win the singles title at one of tennis’s four Grand Slams - the Australian, French and US Opens, and the Wimbledon Championships.

Paolini is coached by the 54-year-old former Italian singles player Renzo Furlan, who reached 19 in the world during his own playing career.

Although only 5ft 4ins (1.63m) tall, which means she cannot match the serving qualities of taller opponents - current world No 1 Aryna Sabalenka, for example, is 6ft (1.83m) - Paolini makes up for her lack of height with powerful groundstrokes and her speed around the court, which she attributes to her Ghanaian heritage on her mother’s side.

Paolini's strength in rallies helps
compensate for her small stature

Paolini’s father, Ugo, is Italian; her mother, Jacqueline, is Polish with a Ghanaian father. The couple met when Ugo was running a bar in Bagna di Lucca and Jacqueline, who grew up in Lodz, arrived in Italy to work as a waitress. They were married within a year.

Their daughter grew up in Bagna di Lucca, where her uncle, Adriano Paolini, introduced her to tennis at the Mirafiume club in the town at the age of five. She worked under the guidance of Marco Picchi and Ivano Pieri, subsequently training at Vicopelago in Lucca, Forte dei Marmi and, from the age of 15, with her current coach Renzo Furlan, who was working for the Italian Tennis Federation at Tirrenia, just outside Pisa.

After winning one junior title at the age of 17 in 2013, Paolini had to wait another four years to make her WTA singles tournament debut at the Swedish Open in 2017. Good results in 2019 propelled her to 94th in the world going into the 2020 season. 

In 2021, she he celebrated her first WTA singles title at the Slovenia Open and entered the main draw of all four Grand Slams for the first time.

Following the 2022 Australian Open, Paolini reached the WTA top 50 for the first time, having achieved her first win over a top-10 player when she knocked out Sabalenka, the then world No 3, at Indian Wells. By October 2023 she had climbed to a career high 31, displacing Elisabetta Cocciaretto as Italian No 1.

Then came substantial progress in 2024, when she played no fewer than 110 singles matches, the programme devised with Furlan providing few breaks but a chance to build real momentum. Beginning with a first fourth-round appearance at the Australian Open in January, the deepest she had been in a Grand Slam to that date, she added a doubles title at the Linz Open in February alongside Errani and a first WTA 1000 title In Dubai, avenging her Australian Open defeat by beating Anna Kalinskaya in the final, taking her to 15 in the world rankings. 

At the French Open, seeded 12th, she overcame Elena Rybakina in the quarter-finals with her first top-five win at a major, then defeated Russia’s Mirra Andreeva in the semi-finals before losing to Swiatek in the final.

Sara Errani partnered Paolini to
doubles gold at the Olympics

She reached the Wimbledon final despite having never previously survived round one at the London venue. Seeded No 7, she knocked out Madison Keys and Emma Navarro in the second week before a semi-final marathon win over Donna Vekić that set a tournament record by lasting two hours and 51 minutes as Paolini came back to triumph from a set down.

The first Italian woman to reach the Wimbledon semi-finals in the open era, she ultimately lost to Krejcikova in three sets.

She and 37-year-old Errani then won gold for Italy at the Olympics, defeating the ‘neutral’ Russian pair of Andreeva and Diana Shnaider in the final, before a singles quarter-final at the Wuhan Open in October allowed her to match Schiavone’s achievement by becoming world No 4. 

Her whirlwind schedule in 2024 also saw Paolini collect more than $5 million in prize money, almost tripling her career earnings.

Errani, with whom Paolini won doubles titles in Rome and China in 2024, also played a key role in the Billie Jean King Cup as the pair won decisive doubles victories against Japan and Poland, before Paolini’s defeat of Rebecca Sramkova in the final against Slovenia gave Italy their first title triumph in the former Federation Cup for 11 years.

The Rocca Ariostesca, once home of the poet
Ludovico Ariosto, attracts visitors to Castelnuovo

Travel tip:

Castelnuovo di Garfagna, Jasmine Paolini’s birthplace, nestles in a valley flanked by the foothills of the Apuan Alps and the Apennines. A town of around 6,000 inhabitants, it can trace its history back to the eighth century, after which its strategic position saw it grow quickly into an important town with defensive walls and castles, which have been enlarged and improved over time. Today, the defensive walls contain the oldest parts of the town, characterised by winding streets and small artisan shops. The more modern part of the town is outside the walls. It developed as a market town from the 13th century, first under the control of Castruccio Castracani, then by the Estensi family of Ferrara, who made the town a seat of Vicarship and built the town’s Duomo - the Chiesa dei Santi Pietro e Paolo. Power transferred to Urbino and then Florence for brief periods in the 16th century before its return to the House of Este. Today, it remains a bustling town with direct road and rail links to Lucca, Pisa, Florence and Viareggio. As well as the Duomo, which has a Renaissance facade and a Baroque interior, the Rocca Ariostesca is an important historical building. The castle takes its name from the Italian poet, Ludovico Ariosto, who lived there between 1522 and 1525 when he was governor of the Garfagnana for the House of Este. Just outside the town, the Fortezza di Monte Alfonso, surrounded by huge protective walls, offers stunning views. 

The Ponte della Maddalena in Bagni di Lucca has
been standing since the late 12th century

Travel tip:

Bagni di Lucca, where Paolini grew up, is actually a collection of 27 villages in the Lima Valley in northern Tuscany, situated 28km (17 miles), famous largely for the hot springs that have attracted visitors to the area since Etruscan and Roman times. The area enjoyed its most prosperous time during French occupation in the 19th century, when the town became the summer residence of the court of Napoleon and his sister, Elisa Baciocchi. A casino was built, where gambling was part of social nightlife. Bagni di Lucca was also popular with English travellers, including Elizabeth Barrett Browning and her husband, Robert Browning, who spent their summers there during their time in Italy in the 1840s and 1850s.  Other illustrious guests said to have visited Bagni di Lucca include the poets Byron, Shelley, Lever, Giusti, Monti and, in the 20th century, Carducci, Pascoli, Montale; writers such as Dumas and musicians Strauss, Listz, Paganini, Puccini and Mascagni. The main sights today include the Art Nouveau complex of the 1839 Casino, Italy's first Anglican church - now a library - and the restored English Cemetery. Also look out of Lorenzo Nottolini’s Ponte delle Catene, one of the oldest iron bridges still standing today, and the mediaeval Ponte della Maddalena, an important crossing probably commissioned by the Countess Matilda of Tuscany in the late 12th century and later renovated under the direction of Castruccio Castracani. It became known as Ponte della Maddalena, from an oratory dedicated to Mary Magdalene, whose statue stood at the foot of the bridge on the eastern bank.

Also on this day:

1710: The birth of composer Giovanni Battista Pergolesi

1881: The birth of San Francisco Opera founder Gaetano Merola

1952: The birth of Mafia hitman Giuseppe Greco

1975: The death of writer and painter Carlo Levi

2015: The death of singer-songwriter Pino Daniele

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Roberta Vinci - tennis champion

Won five Grand Slam doubles titles with partner Sara Errani

Roberta Vinci won 10 singles and 25 doubles titles in her
career, reaching a Grand Slam singles final at the age of 32

The tennis player Roberta Vinci, one half of the most successful Italian women’s doubles partnerships of all time and one of only four Italian women to rank in the world’s top 10 at singles, was born on this day in 1983 in the major port city of Taranto in Puglia.

Vinci and partner Sara Errani reached the women’s doubles final at eight Grand Slam tournaments between 2012 and 2014, winning five of them.

They were the champions at the French Open and United States Open in 2012 and the Australian Open in 2013 and again in 2014. When they won the Wimbledon title in 2014 they became one of only five women’s doubles partnerships to complete a career Grand Slam of all the four majors.

The pair, who reached No 1 in the world rankings in 2012, unexpectedly ended their five-year partnership in 2015, after which Vinci focussed on singles.

Vinci and her doubles partner Sara Errani,
with whom she won five Grand Slams

Vinci’s finest achievement in singles came at the US Open in 2015, when she defeated world No 1 Serena Williams in the semi-finals before facing her compatriot and childhood friend Flavia Pennetta in the final, the first in a Grand Slam in the open era to pit one Italian against another.

Pennetta won 7-6, 6-2 but Vinci was spurred on by her achievement in reaching a Grand Slam final for the first time at 32 years old and in 2016 broke into the world’s top 10 for the first time in her career at 33 years and four days. It is the oldest at which any player has attained a top-10 ranking for the first time.

She did so on the back of winning a WTA tournament in St Petersburg, Russia, her first for three years. Errani, Pennetta and Francesca Schiavone are the other Italian women who have achieved a ranking in the top 10.

The daughter of an accountant, Vinci took up tennis at the age of just six and represented Taranto Tennis Club in numerous junior events. She and Pennetta, from Brindisi, won the women’s doubles at the Avvenire Trophy at just 14 years old.

They won the girls’ doubles at the French Open in 1999, the same year that Vinci made her professional debut.

Vinci and Flavia Pennetta show off their trophies after the
US Open women's final of 2015 in New York

The first of her 35 titles came in 2001 at the Qatar Open, when she and the French player Sandrine Testud won the women’s doubles. In all she went on to win 25 doubles titles, all but three in partnership with Errani.

Vinci won the first of her 10 singles titles at the Copa Colsanitas in Bogota, Colombia, in 2007. She was also a member of the Italian team that won the Fed Cup women’s team event on four occasions.

Unusually for a modern player, Vinci used a one-handed backhand grip and the backhand slice was one of her favourite shots. Combined with a powerful forehand and excellent court coverage, her game was often likened to that of the great German champion Steffi Graf.

After a 21-year career, Vinci retired from professional tennis at the Italian Open in 2018, bowing out before an appreciative home crowd at the Foro Italico in Rome, signing off a tearful farewell speech with the words: “From tomorrow, I am on holiday!”

Taranto's Castello Aragonese, which stands guard over
the canal linking the Mar Grande with the Mar Piccolo

Travel tip:

Taranto, a port city on the Ionian Sea which is home to Italy’s largest naval base, was once one of the largest cities in the world, founded by the Greeks in 706BC and growing so prosperous that it once had a population in excess of 300,000. It retained its status under the Roman Republic but declined under the Roman Empire after the Emperor Trajan redirected the Via Appia, which used to connect it with Rome, to Bari. Nowadays, it is still a substantial city, home to almost 200,000 people. It is built around two large bays - the Mar Grande, where the commercial port is located, and the Mar Piccolo, flanked by the historic town centre and also home to the city’s fishing fleets.  The city is notable for multiple architectural styles, including Byzantine, Saracen and Norman. The Cattedrale di San Cataldo, right in the heart of old Taranto, dates back to the 11th century and houses the relics of the city’s patron saint, Cataldo. Taranto’s other must-see monument is the Castello Aragonese, built by King Ferdinand of Aragon in the 15th century.

The uniquely ornate setting of Italy's national tennis centre
at the Foro Italico, home of the Italian Open

Travel tip:

Foro Italico, the sports complex in Rome that is the home of the Italian Open tennis championships, was built between 1928 and 1938 as the Foro Mussolini. Inspired by the Roman forums of the imperial age, its original purpose was to host the Olympic Games of 1940 as a showcase for Fascist values. In the event, the Second World War meant the 1940 Games were cancelled, although it was the main host venue for the Rome Olympics of 1960. The complex of today includes the Stadio Olimpico, home of Rome’s two major football clubs - Roma and Lazio - and the largest sports stadium in Italy, the ornate Stadio dei Marmi athletics stadium - headquarters of the Italian National Olympic Committee - and the national tennis centre, which - like the Stadio dei Marmi is surrounded by classical statues of athletes.


More reading:

Why Sara Errani can be called Italy's most successful tennis player of all time

Francesca Schiavone - the first Italian woman to win a Grand Slam

How Camila Giorgi became Italy's No 1

Also on this day:

1455: The death of Renaissance painter Fra Angelico

1564: The death of Michelangelo

1967: The birth of soccer star Roberto Baggio

(Picture credits: Main picture of Roberta Vinci by Regasterios; Vinci and Errani by Marianne Bevis; Castello Aragonese by Livioandronico2013; all via Wikimedia Commons)


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Sara Errani - tennis champion

Six-times Grand Slam doubles winner reached No 5 in singles

Sara Errani is arguably Italy's most
successful tennis player

Tennis star Sara Errani, who was born in Bologna on this day in 1987, is one of the most successful Italian tennis players of all time.

She and former partner Roberta Vinci's career record of five Grand Slam doubles titles is unparalleled.  No other Italian combination has won more than one Grand Slam title.

Errani won her sixth Grand Slam title at the US Open in 2024, winning the mixed doubles with an Italian partner in Andrea Vavassori. In the same year, Errani and her new women's doubles partner, Jasmine Paolini, were runners-up in the French Open and returned to the Roland Garros clay courts two months later to win the women's doubles gold medal at the Paris Olympics.

Nicola Pietrangeli, who was ranked the No 3 men's singles player at his peak, won the French Open championship in 1959 and 1960 and was runner-up in Paris on two other occasions, as well as winning the men's doubles at the French in 1959, with fellow Italian Orlando Sirola. Jannik Sinner became the most successful Italian singles player in Grand Slams when his Australian Open triumph in January 2025 gave him his third title at the highest level.

Errani and Vinci won on all surfaces, achieving a career Grand Slam in 2014 when they triumphed in the women's doubles at Wimbledon, having already won the French and US titles in 2012 and the Australian in both 2013 and 2014.  They are only the fifth pairing in tennis history to complete a career Grand Slam.

Errani also achieved a world ranking of No 5 in singles in 2013, having been runner-up to Maria Sharapova in the 2012 French Open as well as winning five WTA singles titles in the space of 12 months.

Among Italian women players, only Francesca Schiavone has achieved a higher singles ranking, reaching No 4 after winning the 2010 French Open.

Errani and Vinci, who also won five WTA doubles titles, have since ended their partnership, Errani deciding to focus on singles, having dropped out of the top 10 in 2014.  In February 2016 year she won her ninth career singles title, defeating the Czech player Barbora Strycova 6-0, 6-2 in the final of the Dubai Championships.

Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci won five Grand Slam titles

As a young girl, Errani showed talent in several sports, including swimming, football and athletics. But after she was picked to represent Italy in a tennis tournament in France at the age of just 12, her parents, fruit and vegetable trader Giorgio and pharmacist Fulvia, found the money to send her to the renowned Nick Bolletieri Academy in Florida.

She was the youngest ever to stay at the facility without her parents and, unable to speak any English, admitted she was so lonely she cried every day.  Yet, knowing the sacrifice her family had made, she stayed for 10 months.

On returning to Italy, she showed the benefit of Bolletieri's tuition and was Italy's No 1 at 18 years and under before she turned 16. Yet her talent was undervalued at home and it was only after moving to Spain that she was given the support necessary to fulfil her potential.

She won her first WTA tournament in Palermo in July 2008, picking up a second two weeks later in Slovenia, after which she pointedly dedicated her success to "all the Italians who never believed in me as a tennis player and said I would never go anywhere."

Though born in Bologna, Errani grew up in Massa Lombarda, in the province of Ravenna, where she still lives.

Updated April 28, 2025.

Travel tip:

Bologna has a reputation as the gastronomic capital of Italy, the city that invented tortellini and mortadella and gave the world the meat sauce (ragù) known as bolognese, which is authentically served with tagliatelle rather than spaghetti.  The best shops to buy fresh food in Bologna can be found in the Quadrilatero, an area adjoining Piazza Maggiore, bordered to the north by Via Francesco Rizzoli, to the south by Via Luigi Carlo Farini and to the east by Via Castiglione. It has a market that has occupied the same location since Medieval times.

Bologna hotels from Expedia.co.uk

The interior of the Basilica di San
Vitale is notable for beautiful mosaics

Travel tip:

No visit to Ravenna would be complete without taking in the stunning art of the octagonal Basilica di San Vitale, which dates back to the sixth century and contains some of the finest examples of Byzantine mosaics in the world, particularly those decorating the ceilings of the choir and apse. There are more mosaics in the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, across the courtyard from the Basilica.

More reading:

How Roberta Vinci reached a US Open singles final

Francesca Schiavone - the first Italian woman to win a Grand Slam tournament

The rise to number one of Camila Giorgi

Also on this day:

1675: The birth of painter Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini

1945: Brazilian troops liberate town of Fornovo di Taro


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