Jasmine Paolini will be at the WTA Finals once again, despite the struggles she has been through in 2026.
Paolini is a two-time Grand Slam singles finalist, has won two WTA 1000 titles in singles and been ranked as high as world number four. This has enabled Paolini to qualify for the WTA Finals in both singles and doubles in 2024 and 2025.
Singles has been much more of a struggle for Paolini in 2026, who has been dealing with a foot issue throughout the season and has therefore only reached one semi-final this year.
As a result, Paolini has fallen to her lowest ranking in three years and had no chance to qualify for the WTA Finals in singles again. Despite this, Paolini was still in contention to do so with her doubles partner and coach Sara Errani, and they have now done so after winning their latest match in Tokyo.
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Jasmine Paolini and Sara Errani qualify for the WTA Finals once again
Paolini’s injury struggles this year have also disrupted her playing doubles with Errani, as they did not play a WTA match together for over three months.
Despite this, Paolini and Errani’s consistency together gave them an outside chance to qualify for the WTA Finals this year, even though they had not won a title together all season.
The final qualification place was between Paolini and Errani, and the pairing of British player Olivia Nicholls and Slovakian Tereza Mihalikova. Paolini and Errani’s final chance to qualify for the WTA Finals was at the Tokyo Open, where they knew that they needed to better Nicholls and Mihalikova’s result in the Japanese capital.
Errani and Paolini made it safely into the semi-finals in Tokyo, where they would face Nicholls and Mihalikova in a straight shoot-out, with the winner booking the final spot for the WTA Finals.
Showing their experience as a Grand Slam winning team, Paolini and Errani beat Nicholls and Mihalikova 6-4, 6-0 to book their place into this year’s WTA Finals.
This will be Errani and Paolini’s third appearance at the WTA Finals, which will be held in Indian Wells this year, and they will be hoping for a better result after exiting at the round-robin stage in both 2024 and 2025.
| Year | Result |
| 2024 | Round-robin (1-2) |
| 2025 | Round-robin (1-2) |
Errani and Paolini will be joined by Gabriela Dabrowski and Luisa Stefani, Taylor Townsend and Katerina Siniakova, Kristina Mladenovic and Hanyu Guo, Nicole Melichar-Martinez and Cristina Bucsa, Su-wei Hsieh and Jelena Ostapenko, Demi Schuurs and Ellen Perez, as well as Elise Mertens and Shuai Zhang to complete the eight-team lineup in Indian Wells.
Despite not qualifying for the WTA Finals, Nicholls and Mihalikova can still travel to Indian Wells as the first alternates in case any team withdraws at any point during the round-robin stage. Before this year’s WTA Finals get underway on November 8, Paolini and Errani will bid to win their first title of the 2026 season in Tokyo.
