ROME — Having come through 2 hours and 55 minutes’ worth of ups and downs in her Internazionali BNL d’Italia opener against Leolia Jeanjean on Thursday, Jasmine Paolini couldn’t survive a second rollercoaster. Despite holding three match points at 6-5 in the second set, the No. 9 seed’s title defense ended 4-6, 7-6(5), 6-3 at the hands of No. 21 seed Elise Mertens in 2 hours and 41 minutes.
Rome: Scores | Draws | Order of play
Mertens has long been a tricky opponent for Paolini. They have been facing each other since their junior days, and the Belgian now leads their pro head-to-head 5-2 (with one of Paolini’s wins coming via retirement). She also has history in Rome — this was Mertens’ first Top 10 win in exactly 12 months, since knocking Jessica Pegula out of the same stage of the tournament last year, and she was also a quarterfinalist in 2020.
The result continues the 2026 clay-court swing’s theme of escapes from match point down. It’s the 11th tour-level win from match point down since the WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz moved to the terre battue at the start of April. Four of those occurred in Madrid — but Rome has already matched that total with the third round only just under way. Previously, Anastasia Zakharova saved quintuple match point to defeat Dayana Yastremska in the first round, Anna Kalinskaya fended off a remarkable nine against Katerina Siniakova in the second round and Karolina Pliskova escaped three to beat Jaqueline Cristian in the second round.
Mertens is no stranger to such victories. The last time she won from match point down prior to Saturday was in last year’s ‘s-Hertogenbosch semifinals against Ekaterina Alexandrova, where she set a record for this decade by saving 11. She’s now posted seven wins from match point down in the 2020s.
“They keep adding up!” Mertens exclaimed when told about the stat. “In the moment you’re trying to not make a mistak, trying to push a little bit more. I think my serve was working well on those points, and she framed one. I was like, OK, she’s getting a little bit nervous, so maybe I got another chance. But I think it’s just playing more in the now. A little bit more like, OK, what do I have to do? And don’t really look at the score, because then you’ll get tight.”
Mertens will next face either No. 8 seed Mirra Andreeva or Viktorija Golubic.
Paolini staying positive despite 2026 results
A crestfallen Paolini said afterwards that the loss was particularly hard to take given that it was on home soil.
“Today wasn’t enough from my side for the people,” she said. “[Mertens] is very solid. You have to play always one more ball. She has very good hand when she defends. Her serve, also it’s very good. You have to play well to beat her from the start until the end of the match. I’m sad because I was playing well. But in that moment of the match, in the important points, I wasn’t that solid, that brave as well. At the end of the day, at this level you pay it.”
Paolini’s record in 2026 is just 11-10, and she has yet to defeat a Top 40 opponent this season. But she doesn’t consider it a crisis, nor does she feel the form that took her to two major finals and two WTA 1000 titles in 2024-25 has deserted her.
“I’m not really happy about my results, of course.” she said. “I think I have to try to be more positive and to look forward to the next tournaments. I think it’s getting better and feeling better, feeling more positive on court. That’s important. Today, with a tough opponent I was competitive. I stayed there. I managed to play my game. That’s important to me. We have to adjust few things — I know that — to win these kind of matches.
“Two years ago I [lost] here first round, then I did final in Roland Garros. So tennis is like that. Is the positive and the negative things sometimes. I know that I have to stay there every tournament. I know that I have to put quality on the court, off the court, practicing, in the gym, then to be more lucid in important points. I think also putting more matches, the high-quality matches, help you in those kind of moments.
“But I think we are going in the right direction. As I said, I’m feeling better. That’s important. Tennis is like that: sometimes goes well, sometimes not. The important thing to me, it’s stay there, believe it, take the chance. To take the chance, you have to stay there and believe.”
