Positive Paolini dreaming 'little by little'

Paolini has battled into the singles and doubles finals without any ground-breaking changes.

"I think I'm really easy person," she said. "I like to smile, to enjoy. Nothing special, normal person. Yeah, that's me."

Alongside long-term coach Renzo Furlan, training on the Tuscan coast in Italy, they’ve chipped away at building Paolini into a formidable force.

A first Grand Slam victory came at Roland-Garros 2020. The next season Paolini lifted her first WTA silverware in Portoroz, Slovenia. A steady climb continued until the Italian turned heads in Dubai with WTA 1000 glory in late February this year.

Talking about Furlan's influence to help her crack the top 10 following Roland-Garros, Paolini put it succinctly.

"He's helped me understand myself, my feelings. Then match by match was getting better, and here we are," she said with a chuckle, whilst also giving credit to her doubles partner and mentor Sara Errani.

"Of course, Sara is helping me a lot. Also playing doubles with her helps me a lot. I can ask her some advice. I think it's a really smart person to have close. It's something positive for me and my team as well."

Errani, singles runner-up at Roland-Garros in 2012, asked Paolini to team up more regularly at RG23, where they fell in the second round. RG24 has been a different tale, with the pair reaching the final on Sunday with a 1-6, 6-4, 6-1 comeback over Elena-Gabriela Ruse and Marta Kostyuk.

"We connect well on and off the court. We are good friends and we talk a lot," the 37-year-old said.

"Of course, I'm older than her. I've lived these situations in another time. I can help her understand the feelings, I can help her to manage the situation. It's nice she has me to talk to."

Ahead of taking on the American-Czech combination of Coco Gauff and Katerina Siniakova in Sunday's final, Errani pointed to her countrywoman's positivity.

"She's already made me cry today. It's very special to be part of her success," Errani said, having watched Paolini's semi-final triumph from the player's box on Court Philippe-Chatrier.

"I'm really, really proud of her. Her energy is unique, she can give a lot of energy to everyone around her. We’ve created a lot of memories together, it's nice to live this life with her.

"I think the doubles has helped her to manage playing at the top, to improve her consistency. She's done a really good job, working really hard. Physically she's very strong and very fast, so she's improved that.

"She believes more. Last year she faced the top players many times, matches she lost, but those matches gave her a lesson, it proved her level was near."

Belief has been Paolini's buzzword when searching through her English vocabulary to describe her incredible fortnight.

"I step on court believing that I can win the match. That I think makes all the difference," she said.

"When you are not confident, it's a little bit more complicated in tennis I think because it's a really mental sport.

"I don't think there was a special moment when it changed. I think it was like a process. I lost all the matches, more or less, against the top players, but I was getting closer. Now with more matches, let's say, in my pocket, I feel more confidence in my game, in myself."

Tathiana Garbin, Paolini's captain in national colours for the Billie Jean King Cup, has helped instil patience and serenity in the Italian.

"I'm so impressed," Garbin said. "At the beginning of this tournament, we were thinking she was playing well, hitting the ball so hard.

"I like the way she talks, we don’t dream big, but we dream little by little. My mantra is to achieve 'step by step.'

"Sometimes you want too much, especially in the modern world, now, now. I tell them this isn't Amazon, you can't click and order wins and Grand Slams. You have to push in every single day."

Paolini echoed that sentiment, embracing the ride.

"I started to play tennis when I was five, and I fell in love with the sport," she said. "It's a long journey. I was not dreaming too much. I was just enjoying playing tennis.

"It's unbelievable to see Jannik (Sinner) when he was 15-years-old say that his dream was to be No.1, and for me it's something different. I never dreamed to be in a Grand Slam final, and I'm here. I'm so happy, but it's something different. I'm a different kind of person I think."