Internazionali BNL d’Italia Players To Watch
Jasmine Paolini (33-1): Paolini lost her second-round match against Maria Sakkari in Madrid, but she’s still 10-3 since the start of March. The Italian’s numbers are now looking a lot like they did last year, when she made two Grand Slam finals—her win percentage of 66.7% is identical to last year’s mark. She’s also starting to serve a little better, plus her break percentage (41.4%) is the highest it has been in a full season on the WTA Tour. Well, Paolini now returns home, where she’ll have a massive home-court advantage. As long as that doesn’t bring added pressure, she has the potential to make a deep run.
Elina Svitolina (33-1): Svitolina was on an 11-match winning streak before a 6-3, 7-5 loss to Sabalenka in the Madrid semifinals. The 30-year-old is now 22-7 since the start of 2025, good for a winning percentage of 75.9%. That’s the second-best winning percentage of the Ukrainian’s career, and you have to go all the way back to her 2017 season for one that can top it. Svitolina is playing some tremendous tennis right now, and it’s hard not to view her as a threat to make some noise over the next month or so. The only problem for Svitolina is that she will likely run into Swiatek in the Round of 16. The winner of that match should go to the final.
