Paolini overcomes the rain to kick off her Dubai title defense

A year ago in Dubai, Jasmine Paolini looked finished. She was down 6-4, 4-2 to Beatriz Haddad Maia in the first round, her chances slipping away.

“Yeah," Paolini said recently. “And 15-40, something like that? Almost lost the match. But, you know, it changed.”

Dubai: Draws | Scores | Order of play 

She didn’t know it at the time, but everything changed for Paolini that warm February day. She won the last 10 games to spark a dazzling career breakthrough, her first WTA 1000 title at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships.

Previously her sole trophy lift had come at a WTA 250 in Slovenia, the Zavarovalnica Sava Portoroz. But in Dubai, Paolini scorched the field, defeating Haddad Maia, Leylah Fernandez, Maria Sakkari, Elena Rybakina, Sorana Cirstea and, in the final, Anna Kalinskaya -- all ranked among the Top 40.

“Sometimes, it just happens like that,” Paolini said. “The best tournaments, you start struggling -- and then you find it.”

Paolini, you might say, found herself at the age of 28. She currently stands at No. 4 in the PIF WTA Rankings and is your unlikely defending champion in Dubai.

She arrived a few days early in Doha, trying to settle into the rhythm that worked so well a year ago.

“Trying to get good sensation,” she told wtatennis.com, “because for me this is a tough tournament. It’s OK, we try another year.”

This year's opening match involved a different type of drama. On Tuesday, Paolini kicked off her title defense in a rain-addled match that saw the Italian get to match point before rain forced the players off the court. Over four hours later, Paolini returned to win that one crucial point, beating German qualifier Eva Lys 6-2, 7-5.

It was a deceptively tricky match, with multiple rain delays halting Paolini's quest for rhythm and momentum. But after Lys ran off four consecutive games in the second set, Paolini settled herself to get the win.

It’s only been a year since playing the tournament of her life but when you consider it led to the season of her life, Paolini said, it feels like a lot longer.

In her first 16 main-draw appearances in Grand Slam singles, she never got past the second round. But a month before she won in Dubai, Paolini reached the fourth round of the Australian Open. But that hardly prepared her (or anyone, really) for what happened next -- Paolini raced into the finals on the red clay at Roland Garros and, in a matter of weeks, the finals on the lush lawns of Wimbledon.

Those wonderful major runs can be traced to the confidence she took from Dubai.

“Every step last year helped me,” Paolini said. “Helped me to get to second week [of a Grand Slam] for first time, which helped me to play better the rest of the year. You improve and you feel you can play these matches. Give me so much confidence.”

And then there was doubles. Paolini and fellow Sara Errani reached the final at Roland Garros but came back later to take the gold medal at the Summer Olympics in Paris. There was another title in Beijing and Paolini was the only player at the WTA Finals in Riyadh to play both singles and doubles.

Paolini crowned her season with a singles victory over Slovenia’s Rebecca Sramkova helping to seal Italy’s triumph at the Billie Jean King Cup Finals in Malaga, Spain in November.

Since then, Paolini has been even busier. There was a quick two-week training block back in Dubai and the trip to Australia, where she lost in the third round to Elina Svitolina. She didn’t have time to dwell on it though, because she flew back to Italy, where the victorious Italian teams that won the Billie Jean King Cup and the men’s Davis Cup were summoned to celebrate with President of the Italian Republic, Sergio Mattarella in Rome.

Now, all Paolini has to do is forget it all ever happened.

“I’m trying to tell myself that this year it’s a different story, completely different,” Paolini said, emphasizing the word trying. “We have to write a new story, not think too much of the past.

“I mean you have to look at the results you did to give you confidence as you go to the new season, but it’s a new year.”

The biggest objective, Paolini said, is sharpening her service skills, trying to be more precise, particularly on the first ball. Her success, she admitted, changed her personal expectations for 2025.

“I’m trying to focus on the work, to tell myself that everything can happen in tennis,” Paolini said. “You have to keep going and going, try to do good things. Trying also to keep expectations low.

“But with expectations, of course, I think it’s tougher for me.”