Jasmine paalani has often said that she doesn't want to be compared to the legendary Italian women who came before her following in the footsteps of a generation of breakout stars that created two grand slam singles Champions a dias's sadilla 2010 Euro R and geros Champion Francesca skoni and 2015 US Open Champion Flavia Pena a Di's Silla and forg their way to for Billy Jean King Cup titles surely can't be an easy task the 28-year-old world number five reiterated the sentiment on Saturday in New York moments after defeating Julia Putin to reach the round of 16 for the first time at the US Open where she will face Carolina makova I'm trying to as I said to focus on my story she said no offense to pen skoni and other Italian women that came before her but po lani's rags to Rich's tail is a page Turner that could be worthy of a p surprise Pani has been a solid entity on tour since 2020 when she first managed to finish a season inside the top 100 but the riveting chapters the tusam native has authored in 2024 have been unthinkably solid so good that it makes the reader want to flip back to the first chapter of her story to see what they might have missed so good that poen herself has trouble processing the improbable story arc that she has crafted poeni a 5'4 Dynamo to belts the ball with a gussel that belies her diminutive frame has seemingly transformed herself overnight but begala says there were signs that the Italian had the makings of a world beater I think every time I played her I always felt like she was better than her ranking pegula said I feel like something obviously clicked with her with winning these matches and becoming more consistent mentally it seems like maybe she's playing a little bit more aggressive too sometimes when that clicks you just get this feeling going in those matches where you know how to play the big points and you have a lot of momentum it seems like she's been able to find that vula who could end up facing Pani in the semi-finals if both players continue winning in New York says she is drawn to the Italian story and sees a little bit of herself in it I think it's a nice story because we get so attached to all the young stories of everyone being so young and it's if you don't do well right away then all of a sudden you become like a journey woman and you become the one that it never really worked out and all this kind of negative stuff she said we've seen that kind of change a lot the last few years I'm kind of one of those people so I like to see those stories turn out everyone has a different kind of Challenge and a journey ahead of them as for poeni she just wants to keep writing new chapters rather than rest on her Laurels she prefers to keep striving we try to improve something every day she says because if you stay at the same level you will go back