French Open star forced to break up fight in crowd and punishes them both
Fan favourite Jasmine Paolini has shown her class again by showing up some misbehaving spectators at Roland Garros. The Italian women’s number one was coming off another impressive performance, thi…
Fan favourite Jasmine Paolini has shown her class again by showing up some misbehaving spectators at Roland Garros.
The Italian women’s number one was coming off another impressive performance, this time in the doubles where she and Sara Errani downed Lulu Sun and Yue Yuan to reach the last 16.
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Paolini had some frustration with her singles exitCredit: Getty
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But in the doubles it was some warring fans that bothered herCredit: X
Yet post match an unsavoury scuffle broke out, inadvertently prompted by the Tuscan.
Paolini threw her towel into the front row of the French Open crowd - a regular act by tennis players to give one lucky fan a simple souvenir.
However, on this occasion, it wasn’t one fan, with two scrapping over each end of the towel and not giving up.
In fact, their tug of war went on so long that Paolini had packed her back and began signing objects in the crowd before noticing it.
She then responded by grabbing her towel, and giving it to another fan further along in the front row.
Returning to her signing duties, the man and woman who lost out on the souvenir looked absolutely stunned.
The following day Paolini was knocked out of the singles 6-4, 7-6, 6-1 by Elina Svitolina, but remains among the elite after a stunning 2024.
The 29-year-old came out of relative obscurity to record her best Grand Slam results in all four events last year.
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She reached the final at Wimbledon and Roland Garros, where she lost to Barbora Krejcikova and Iga Swiatek respectively.
The world No.6 did win a gold medal at the Olympics in Paris, though, and has been part of an extraordinary tennis boom in Italy along with compatriot and men’s No.1 Jannik Sinner.
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Paolini grabbed the towel and gave it to other fansCredit: X
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The two warring fans looked shockedCredit: X
Despite not having much of a serve due to her relatively short height of 5ft 4in, Paolini has beaten much more powerful players due to her infectious determination.
Praising the increasingly popular Tuscan, former men’s world No.1 Andy Roddick summed up what’s made her so popular.
"Paolini who has a smile that makes you want to smile,” he said.
“Among the women, [the Olympics] was Italy's first victory since Raffaella Reggi in 1985.
“Paolini is so nice. I couldn't even understand what she was saying during the award ceremony but I knew it was funny because she was laughing and everyone was laughing.
“She looks like a winner. Who would have bet a year ago that she would arrive at Roland Garros ranked fourth in front of Iga Swiatek.”