Paolini pulls out of Cincinnati: the foot won't heal, goodbye to the top 20

Jasmine Paolini will also skip the WTA 1000 in Cincinnati, scheduled for August 13-23. The announcement came from the Tuscan player herself, world No. 15, who loses the 650 points from last year's final with the withdrawal and will drop out of the top 20 for the first time since the start of 2024.

"After reaching the final last year, I was really looking forward to coming back, but now the goal is to be 100% for the US Open".

The left foot problem has kept her out since July 8, when Marta Kostyuk beat her 6-3, 6-2 in the Wimbledon quarterfinals. Since then she has already pulled out of Washington and Toronto. At Cincinnati in 2025 she lost the final to Iga Swiatek 7-5, 6-4, and those points weigh more than any other in her ranking this summer.

Paolini is letting the ranking go to show up in full health at Flushing Meadows, where the main draw starts August 30. She will reach New York without having played a match on American hard courts, and with a seeding number higher than the one she was entitled to at the start of summer. It's the cost of an injury that has dragged on for a month during the stretch when she defends more points than at any other time of the year.