Straight into the action in Tokyo and Italy’s Jasmine Paolini has three set points to level things up against Naomi Osaka and take it to a deciding third set. As a big fan of both, I am really enjoying the sight of two of my favourite current players going head-to-head and looking forward to a third set but first let’s rewind back about 50 hours.

On the second day of qualifying (October 25th) for the Toray Pan Pacific Open (TPPO), the bad weather meant I went to the indoor courts which was something I had never done on any of my many previous visits to this tennis park in Ariake. By pure chance I managed to catch Paolini and her doubles partner Sara Errani in a practice match against the Chinese pair of Qianhui Tang & Yifan Xu.

There were just five of us waiting at the back of the court for them to finish and then eventually they started to make their way towards us. You really can’t be too shy in such situations and have to be ready with your camera or pen and paper as the players are busy people and indeed Paolini was about to take part in some event as part of the Yonex Tennis Festival event.

Her match against Osaka two days later was a big one for the 1st Round of the tournament and it started early evening on Center Court with a bigger crowd than usual but one that was still far from full. As with the previous day for Alex Eala against Mika Stojsavljevic, I moved into position to appear in the background for when the players entered. Does this count as a selfie with Naomi?!

Does this count as a selfie with Naomi?!!

A few hours earlier I had caught sight of Osaka in a cart being driven to the practice court so went to watch her hit some shots. As she was finishing, the crowd rushed over to the exit gate but I really didn’t expect her to hang around too much. Wrong! To her credit, she moved smoothly along the whole line but annoyingly I wasn’t on the front row so was unable to get a photo with her. So near yet so far! Would I get another chance?

Whilst all that was going on, her opponent Jasmine Paolini had managed to replace her on the same court without being noticed by many. I watched her practice for a bit before moving the short distance to the exit gate with a few other autograph collectors who spent the whole day in this area waiting to get their player mementos. Eventually, Paolini departed the practice court leaving Erani behind to continue. Paolini had her big singles match just about an hour later but signed and posed for a short time afterwards.

Again, I got my opportunity for a selfie with her. You wait years for one such opportunity and then it happens twice in three days! Personally, I prefer the other photo of us.

I later moved on over to the Center Court for the action which began shortly after 5:00 pm with the roof open.

Another selfie with Naomi!!

Osaka won the first set 6-3 and as I said in the introduction to this post, Paolini had three chances to break Osaka’s serve and win the second set.

However, Osaka bounced back and took it to deuce before eventually taking it to a tie-break which she won.

Although I’d have liked to see a deciding third set, I was really tired by this time of the evening after three full days at the tennis. Once the winners’ speech was over I made a quick exit.

Two days later Osaka was defeated by Slovakia’s Mia Pohankova thus ruining my chance of seeing her in action again on quarter finals day (October 30th). However, I was able to see Paolini in the doubles with Sara Errani against Asia Muhammad and Shuai Zhang which was a really entertaining and tough match which they came through in straight sets 6-3, 6-4. They have been a great doubles pair for a while now and their styles seem to greatly complement each other which has resulted in a fair amount of success including Olympic gold in Paris 2024 and the French Open in 2025.

Paolini’s smile and energy are infectious, and I was delighted to have witnessed her in doubles for the first time as her match on Monday (26th October) was cancelled due to the heavy rain. I greedily tried to get a third photo with her after the match but failed. I really couldn’t be too sad though as I had my (very brief!) moments with her earlier in the week. Treasured memories and it was great to see her finally take part in the TPPO having withdrawn late last year. Let’s hope she returns in 2027 to defend the doubles title which her and Sara went on to win on finals day.

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