Jasmine Paolini admits she used to find it a ‘nightmare’ to play big-hitting players but now she is ready for the challenge at Wimbledon. 

The world No.7 is through to the fourth round of the grasscourt major for the first time in her career after rallying to a 7-6(4), 6-1, win over former US Open champion Bianca Andreescu. Before this season, she had never won a Tour-level match on the grass. She has now won 12 Grand Slam matches in 2024 which is the joint-highest on the WTA Tour with Coco Gauff, who will play later today. 

“I’m feeling good. Every match, it’s different,” said Paolini. 
“I think I played really good three matches, especially the second and the third one. The first one I think I was a little bit more nervous.
“I’m just thinking of trying to play point by point. But it’s not easy.”

Things will only get harder for Paolini who will next take on Madison Keys. A player that is known as a tricky opponent at major events. Illustrated by the fact she has reached a Grand Slam fourth round or better on 20 separate occasions since 2015. 

In their only previous meeting on the Tour, Keys thrashed Paolini 6-1, 6-1, with the use of her powerful hitting. However, this time round the Italian believes she is better prepared to deal with that power. 

“It was a nightmare facing those players,” Paolini said in Italian when asked about facing powerful players.
“Against everyone, you can win or lose, but at least you can play a match with them. I just couldn’t stay in the match.
“Now I’m a bit more comfortable, more confident.”

Regardless of what happens, the 28-year-old has already sealed her name in the history books by becoming the first woman from her country to reach the fourth round or better at the first three Grand Slams of a season. 

“It’s strange,” she said of the achievement. “When I was watching the girls (Francesca Schiavone, Flavia Pennetta etc) that were winning slams, making finals, I felt like they were so far from me.
“It’s something that of course I’m proud of, but it sounds a little bit strange.”

For the first time in Wimbledon’s history, organisers have created a service to monitor abusive comments sent to players via social media. 

The monitoring service was confirmed by tournament director Jamie Baker on Friday while he was speaking with the media. According to research conducted by the World Sports Network, Novak Djokovic, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Carlos Alcaraz all received a high level of negative comments on social media compared to their peers. On the women’s side, the top three were Aryna Sabalenka, Elena Rybakina and Caroline Garcia. Daria Kasatkina has previously described the issue as ‘out of control’ when speaking about her experiences on social media. 

“This year is the first year that we have got effectively a social media monitoring service specifically for the event,” the AFP news agency quoted Baker as saying.

“This is not something that you’ll see in the public domain at all. You won’t see us shout about it but effectively we are scrolling social media for any of this type of content and it means that we can get information that we haven’t had in the past.

“We’re not just relying on what a player might be saying is happening to them but also if there is something that is of concern that’s when our security teams can basically kick in and actually help do something about it.”

Wimbledon’s new service can be used at the player’s disposal. However, they won’t pursue any incidents unless they have been asked to do so. This is not the first time such an initiative in tennis has occured. Last December a proactive monitoring service that aims to protect athletes from online abuse and threats was established by the ITF, WTA, AELTC and USTA.

“The benefit of having it is that we do have the ability to officially register what’s going on but we wouldn’t be taking any of those steps without actually engaging with the player and their teams and trying to get a feel for what’s going on,” Baker commented.

“This is the obviously the first time we’ve had it at our event but tennis is doing a lot more of this now so I think in generalfor the athletes it’s really positive that we’re taking this step.”

A study commissioned by the International Olympic Committee concluded that there has been a ‘considerable rise’ in online abuse against athletes in recent years. 

Emil Ruusuvuori upset Stefanos Tsitsipas 7-6 (8-6) 7-6 (12-10) 3-6 6-3 to reach the third round for the first time on his 16^th Grand Slam appearance at Wimbledon. 

Ruusuvuori has become the third Finnish player to reach the third round at Wimbledon, joining Pekka Saila and Jarkko Nieminen. He hit 41 winners and won 80% of his first serve points. 

Ruusuvuori earned a break in the third game to take a 2-1 lead. Tsitsipas broke back in the 10^th game to draw level to 5-5. Ruusuvuori went up a mini-break twice, but Tsitsipas pulled back on serve both times. Ruusuvuori earned his third mini-break to win the tie-break 8-6. The second set went on serve en route to tie-break. Both players traded mini-breaks four times in the tie-break. Ruusuvuori won the final three points to seal the tie-break 12-10. Tsitsipas broke in the fourth game to win the third set 6-3. Ruusuvuori earned a break in the sixth game and closed out the fourth set on his first match point. 

Tsitsipas led 2-0 in his previous head-to-head matches against Ruusuvuori and did not lose more than six games in either match. 

Ruusuvuouri scored his first Grand Slam win over a top 20 player in 2024. 

“I did not get away far. It was difficult. It could have been a bit different if I won the second set tie-break, but I tried my best and it did not work. I am just proud of myself the way I fought and the way I never gave up. I will continue towards the path of getting the better”, said Tsitsipas. 

Ruusuvuori set up a third round match against Giovanni Mpetchi Perricard, who beat Yoshihito Nishioka 6-4 6-1 6-2. 

Alexander Zverev cruised into a third round match with a 6-2 6-1 6-4 win over Marcos Giron to reach the third round in 16 of his 17 Grand Slam tournaments. 

Zverev broke twice in the first and eighth games to win the first set 6-2. The German earned three breaks to close out the second set 6-1. The third set went on serve until the 10th game, when Zverev sealed the win with a break at 15.

Zverev set up a third round agains Cameron Norrie, who beat Jack Draper 7-6 (7-3) 6-4 7-6 (8-6). 

Arthur Fils was leading 7-6 (7-2) 6-4 2-6 7-6 6-6 (9-8), when Hubert Hurkacz was forced to retire while he was facing a match point. The Polish player suffered from an injury. Hurkacz was leading 8-7 in the tie-break of the fourth set, but he opted to withdraw from the match after losing the next two points. 

Fils set up a match against Roman Safiulin, who beat Tomas Machac in four sets.