Jasmine Paolini demonstrated clear superiority on clay against Katie Boulter at the Mutua Madrid Open, despite their previous four encounters being evenly split. In their first meeting on the red surface, the World No. 6 seed needed only an hour to secure a dominant 6-1, 6-2 victory and advance to the third round.
Paolini, who was a finalist at Roland Garros last year, started the match impressively, quickly taking a 2-0 lead fueled by five clean winners. Boulter, celebrating her first career tour-level win on clay in the previous round against Katerina Siniakova, managed to break back after an excellent rally, finishing the point with her own backhand winner.
However, that proved to be the peak of Boulter`s challenge. Paolini proceeded to win the next nine games consecutively, not even facing a game point. She effectively utilized powerful forehands and delicate drop shots to exploit Boulter`s movement. In the second set, Boulter managed to win only four points across the first five games and struggled with control, accumulating a total of 21 unforced errors.
While leading 5-0, Paolini experienced a brief dip in form, committing a couple of double faults, which allowed Boulter to claim two games. But this brief resistance wasn`t enough. The Italian comfortably served out the match on her second opportunity. Paolini, aiming to match or better her best Madrid performance (reaching the fourth round last year), is scheduled to play the winner of the match between No. 29 seed Magda Linette and Maria Sakkari in the next round.
