By Christian Radnedge
LONDON (Reuters) -Wimbledon fourth seed and 2024 runner-up Jasmine Paolini came from a set down to beat Latvia’s Anastasija Sevastova 2-6 6-3 6-2 on Monday, sealing a place in the second round.
The 5-foot-4-inch pocket rocket, who had not won a main draw match on grass before her surge to the Wimbledon final last year, looked a bit rusty in the early evening sunshine on Court 2, surrendering an early break to her 35-year-old opponent.
Sevastova, making her first Wimbledon appearance since 2021 after maternity leave and injury, set up another break point with a deft backhand slice and went 5-2 up when Paolini hit into the net.
The Italian, unusually quiet by her standards, made 13 unforced errors in the first set as her 402nd-ranked opponent took the lead.
The pair traded breaks twice in the second set but after an hour of play it was Paolini who had the momentum while Sevastova began to tire, the power ebbing away from her groundstrokes. Paolini broke again and served out the set to level.
Sevastova took a medical timeout before the third set, but on the resumption of play Paolini pounced and pummelled the Latvian into submission, rattling off three games in a row as the sun set on her opponent’s stay at the All England Club.
The 29-year-old Italian, having found her rhythm and her voice, comfortably powered her way to victory and a second-round meeting with Russia’s 80th-ranked Kamilla Rakhimova.
Paolini said that when she started to smile, she played better, but that she struggled to find cheer in that difficult first set where her hitting was wayward.
“In that moment (first set) I was thinking, ‘It’s a bad day, but still you are here. If it’s going bad, it doesn’t (matter) -it’s just going bad. I’m going to lose a tennis match and try to smile a little bit, because I feel it can relax me a little bit’.
“Somehow I get less nervous when I do this. It was tough to find that smile today, honestly,” she added, laughing.
(Reporting by Christian Radnedge; Editing by Ken Ferris)
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