Paolini survives a set against a winless debutante on her injury return

Jasmine Paolini returned from a foot injury on Sunday evening with a win that took far more out of her than the draw suggested, the Italian No. 19 seed beating Slovenian qualifier Veronika Erjavec 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 to reach the second round of the US Open in her first match since Wimbledon.

Paolini had not competed since the quarter-finals at the All England Club, having taken time away from the tour with the foot problem, and the rust surfaced in the middle set. Erjavec, ranked No. 106 and making her US Open main-draw debut, took it 6-3 and had the two-time Grand Slam finalist playing a decider she can have expected to avoid.

The Slovenian arrived in New York without a tour-level win all season, at 0-5 for 2026, and having lost her opening match at the Australian Open, Roland-Garros and Wimbledon. She had played a top-20 opponent only once before, losing to Elena Rybakina at Roland-Garros this year, and her career-best win by ranking remains a defeat of Marta Kostyuk at Wimbledon in 2025, when she came through qualifying.

A season of near misses against lower-ranked players

Paolini came into this tournament at 15-13 for the season, with a semi-final in Merida and the Wimbledon quarter-final her best results.

Paolini is making her seventh appearance at Flushing Meadows and has never gone beyond the fourth round here, losing to Karolina Muchova at that stage in 2024. She will play the winner of the all-comers match between Italian qualifier Lucrezia Stefanini and Ukrainian Dayana Yastremska in the second round.