Opinion: Jasmine Paolini to face Dayana Yastremska in most compelling first round French Open match

Jasmine Paolini (Nuta Lucian, Wikimedia Commons)

The 2026 French Open commences on Sunday with one very intriguing women’s singles matchup. The 13th seed Jasmine Paolini of Italy will face Dayana Yastremska of Ukraine.

Both Paolini and Yastremska have gone deep in majors before. Paolini made all the way to the final at the 2024 French Open (lost to Iga Swiatek of Poland in the final 5-2, 6-1), and 2024 Wimbledon (lost to Brabora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic in the final, 6-2, 2-6, 6-4). Yastremska’s best grand slam result was a semifinal appearance at the 2024 Australian Open. There she lost 6-4, 6-4 to China’s Qinwen Zheng.

Paolini has dominated the head-to-head play in the past. The Italian has beaten Yastremska, the 45th ranked player in the world, six times in seven meetings. Paolini’s wins came in the first round of the 2021 Slovenian Open (7-6, 4-1, as Yastremska withdrew from the match), quarterfinals of the 2021 Courmayeur Open in Italy (6-4, 7-6), first round of the 2021 Upper Austria Ladies Linz event (6-4, 3-6, 6-2), second round of the 2022 Transylvania Open in Romania (6-4, 6-1), second round of the 2023 Firenze Ladies Open in Florence, Italy (7-5, 4-6, 6-3), and the second round of the 2023 WTA event in Palermo, Italy (2-6, 6-4, 6-2). Yastremska’s lone win came in the quarterfinals of Lyon in 2022 (6-4, 7-6).

Yastremska has a legitimate chance of beating Paolini because of the players she has beaten in 2026. The notable opponents she has beaten this year include former United States Open finalist Leylah Annie Fernandez of Canada (6-1, 6-2) in the second round of the Brisbane International, 2023 French Open semifinalist Beatriz Haddad Maia of Brazil (6-2, 7-5) in the first round of Abu Dhabi, and Krejcikova, a two-time grand slam champion, in the final of the Parma Open (6-3, 6-3).