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via Imago

via Imago

Very few would’ve given Jasmine Paolini a chance to reach the French Open finals. However, the Italian star has swung the odds in her favor, reaching her maiden summit clash at the Grand Slam level. Paolini outclassed Mirra Andreeva in the last four to set up a clash with World Number 1, Iga Swiatek. She stunned one and all, including the American legend, Andy Roddick, who got it all wrong in his prediction about Paolini.

Roddick has been active in the tennis circle, appearing in several podcasts to talk about the current happenings in the tennis world. One such topic on which he has actively spoken is Paolini’s rise. During her semifinal, Roddick didn’t give the Italian star a chance, predicting that Andreeva would outclass her. However, Paolini’s gritty display left Roddick lamenting his horrible prediction.

During the recent episode of the ‘Served With Andy Roddick’ podcast, he said, “I picked Andreeva over Paolini and that was a horrible call apparently um I guess my only defense is we’re kind of still learning um what kind of games affect Andreeva negatively. I humbly say I completely underestimated Paolini in this tournament. Hell of a run to the finals and listen you’re always in with a chance right always.”

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via Reuters

Earlier, Roddick highlighted a peculiar weakness in Paolini’s game to explain why Andreeva will win their semifinal clash. However, that weakness didn’t come Paolini’s way as she proved Roddick all wrong.

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Andy Roddick’s upsetting prediction on Jasmine Paolini

The Italian star didn’t give Andreeva any breathing space in the semifinal and won the match in straight sets 6-3, 6-1, proving her critics wrong, including Andy Roddick. The American legend pointed out that the short height of Paolini would play against her as Andreeva would make her run across the court.

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Roddick mentioned, “I think I like Andreeva in the semi. I think she’s gonna be able to spread the court. Paolini is not big, probably five foot five or less. When someone is five foot five or less, and you can kind of extend the court so she can hit line and we talked about that superpower that makes the court a lot bigger, especially for someone that it reach isn’t, isn’t quite there.”

However, Paolini will face Iga Swiatek in the summit clash of the French Open later today. While Swiatek’s superiority is second to none currently, Paolini can be written off only at one’s peril, as she showed in her semifinal match against Andreeva.