Jasmine Paolini beat 2019 US Open champion Bianca Andreescu 6-1 3-6 6-0 in 93 minutes.
Paolini his seven winners to Andreescu’s four in the third set.
Paolini won her first WTA 1000 title at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships and reached her career-high of world number 12 in the WTA Ranking. She reached two Grand Slam Round of 16 at the Australian Open and Roland Garros during this season. She won the doubles title with Sara Errani at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome.
Andreescu, who was battling against injuries in the past few years, was playing her first tournament in nine months. The Canadian player is currently ranked world number 228, but she won Indian Wells, Toronto and her first Grand Slam title at the US Open in 2019. Andreescu beat Sara Sorribes Tormo 7-5 6-1 and Anna Kalinskaya 1-6 7-5 6-3 in the first two rounds of this year’s edition of the French Open.
Paolini earned two breaks to race out to a 4-0 lead. Andreescu pulled one of the two breaks back in the fifth game, but Paolini earned another break in the sixth game and closed out the first set by holding serve at 15.
“The weather conditions were tough, but the match went very well. I waited for this match during the whole day. I finished the doubles match late. The key was to keep control of the match. The goal is to play a good match. I focus on a match at a time and not on the ranking. This is the key to take the pressure off myself”, said Paolini.
Andreescu saved five break points in the second set, one at 1-1 and four at 3-3 before breaking serve in the eighth game to take a 5-3 lead. Andreescu ended the second set by winning 11 of the final 13 points to win the second set 6-3.
Paolini broke three times and dropped just nine points to take a bagel win in the third set after 1 hour and 33 minutes.
Paolini beat world number 70 Elina Avenesyan, who beat China’s Zhen Qinwen 3-6 6-3 7-6 (10-6) after 2 hours and 52 minutes. Paolini joins Elisabetta Cocciaretto in the fourth round.
Two Italian players have reached the Round of 16 in the same Grand Slam tournament for the first time since the 2015 US Open, when Flavia Penneta and Roberta Vinci advanced to an all-Italian final.
