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Jasmine Paolini’s magical year was given a final flourish as she struck the winning shot for Italy in the Billie Jean King Cup Final with her final prize money for 2024 highlighting how her life has changed over the last 12 months.

Paolini finished last season ranked at No 30 in the WTA Rankings, with her performances in the Billie Jean King Cup firing Italy to the final against Canada.

She then lost to an inspired Leylah Fernandez as the Canadians swept to victory in the final in Seville and back then, the experienced Paolini could not have imagined what was coming next in her career.

As she held her hands aloft after winning the final point of her match against Slovakia’s Rebecca Sramkova, Paolini’s dream year had it’s perfect ending.

Italy’s 2-0 win against Slovakia came after Lucia Bronzetti’s 6-2, 6-4 victory against Viktoria Hruncakova in the opening match of the tie, ensuring Paolini’s career-defining year had a golden ending.

This likeable Italian was viewed as a top-level doubles player alongside her partner Sara Errani at the start of this year, but now she is very much a singles A-lister.

After reaching Grand Slam singles finals at the French Open and Wimbledon finals, Paolini pieced together an incredible rise up the tennis ladder that also included a first WTA 1000 tournament in Dubai.

She also qualified for the WTA Finals in Saudi Arabia, bringing her total prize money for this year to $5,024,205.

When you consider the 28-year-old had only won $2,649,189 in prize money during her entire career prior to this year, the scale of her improvement in recent months is truly incredible.

Now Paolini will take a share of the $2.4m prize money pot that will now be shared by the five members of the Italy team.

The total player prize money on offer at the Billie Jean King Cup Finals was $9.6m and the new world champion players were also presented with the iconic Billie Blue jackets after their win.

They looked especially fitting on the winning nation, as they were in Italian blue.

“Unbelievable year,” said Paolini. “It’s a crazy year and to finish by winning the title at Billie Jean King Cup is amazing.

“I don’t have words to describe it. I’m trying just to enjoy every moment. It’s important to understand where you are, I feel lucky to be in this position, in this team.

I think we played unbelievable this week.

“Today I was repeating to myself you’re going to give 100 percent. If we win we win, if you lose we accept that. I fight for every ball.

“I think from the end of last year, I started to play better and better.

I think also the Billie Jean King Cup last year, playing in the final, it was a big result for us. I think it helped me, I won big matches.

“Before the last year, I wasn’t really confident about playing in this competition.

I was feeling the pressure and it was not easy for me to adjust, with so many people around on the bench, but last year I finally got used to it and tried to see the positive side, that I had so much support and it worked.”

Paolini’s tennis story is truly inspirational, as she is not blessed with a power game to compete with the game’s top players, but he passion to succeed has driven her to the top.

“I started to play tennis when I was five and I fell in love with the sport,” she said. “It’s a long journey.

I was not dreaming too much at the start.

I was just enjoying playing tennis. Now we are here, in Grand Slam finals and it’s hard to believe.

“I step on court believing that I can win every match. That I think makes all the difference from where I was before.

“When you are not confident, it’s a little bit more complicated in tennis I think because it’s a really mental sport.

“I don’t think there was a special moment when it changed. It was a process.

At the start, I lost all the matches, more or less, against the top players, but I was getting closer.

“I think every person has her own steps. I needed some more time to believe maybe that I could play at this level.

“Now things are a little different for me. I have a little bit more attention on myself, but I’m trying to enjoy, to live the present, to enjoy the moment because it’s nice to be in this position.

It’s also nice to play great matches against top players.”

A team of heroes featuring Paolini, Elisabetta Cocciaretto, Lucia Bronzetti, Sara Errani and Martina Trevisan can now call themselves world champions, as they join Jannik Sinner and his male players with that title after their Davis Cup win last year.