"I don't consider myself a favorite at Roland-Garros," says Paolini despite her Rome title

This Saturday afternoon, Jasmine Paolini claimed her second WTA 1000 title. A year after triumphing in Dubai, the Italian player—who will re-enter the top 4 in the upcoming WTA rankings—won the Rome tournament in front of her home crowd.

After a controlled final against Coco Gauff (6-4, 6-2), who suffered her second clay-court final defeat this season following Madrid, Paolini celebrated with her supporters, who cheered her throughout the tournament.

After her victory, Paolini held a press conference and was asked about her chances of winning Roland-Garros this season. The Italian has certainly built plenty of confidence before returning to Paris, where she reached the final last year on the French clay before losing to Iga Swiatek.

"To be honest, I don’t consider myself a favorite at Roland-Garros. I’ll try to do my best. I’ll go there and take it match by match. Even if I had stayed with Renzo Furlan (her former coach, Paolini is now coached by Marc Lopez), I wouldn’t have expected to bounce back so quickly.

I don’t know if this was the best match of my career, but I played at a very high level. I moved really well and struck the ball cleanly. My mind was clear, and I felt good from the start.

In the end, I’m happy with how I handled everything because there was a lot of tension before the match, and it all went well," Paolini told *Championnat*.