It was the kind of fairytale Italians dream of: a world No 427 rising from obscurity to captivate home fans by earning a place in the main draw of Italy's premier tennis tournament. For 20-year-old Italian Noemi Basiletti, the path at the Internazionali BNL d'Italia was anything but simple.
Remarkable run
Tested over two days and over more than two hours of play, the young Italian battled past world No 88 Ajla Tomljanović, sealing a 7-5, 6-4 victory on Thursday to continue her remarkable run. Thursday was day full of firsts for the Italian from San Vincenzo. It was her first meeting with Australia's Tomljanović, her first appearance at the Foro Italico in Rome, and also the first time that the world No 427 entered and secured a spot in a WTA main draw.
In doing so, Basiletti competed and powered through her first WTA qualifying tournament this week, downing two top-100 players, with wins over world No 85 ranked Emiliana Arango and world No 95 ranked Daria Snigur. She has earned her wild card, and joins 10 other Italian WTA players from Italy in the main draw at the Foro Italico.
Career trajectory
The Italian's career trajectory has been impressive. This time last year, the right-hander was ranked world No 820, with a total career prize money of $31,699 earned to date. A stark contrast against Tomljanović's comparatively monumental career high earnings of $7,552,856.
As a qualifier, Basiletti has much inspiration to draw from her counterparts. Suspended due to rain, the match against Tomljanović was a continuation from Wednesday, which was suspended due to rain. This could have been destabilising for the relatively inexperienced Basiletti, who was leading 5-3 before play was suspended, and would have wanted to stay in the momentum and win the set.
But the Italian showed remarkable maturity in returning the following day, and regaining her rhythm from the previous day. Mixed year
By contrast, Tomljanović, has had a mixed year to date. She has been unable to progress beyond the opening rounds of tournaments. She reached the second round at the Australian Open, Adelaide, Brisbane and Miami, the first round in Charleston and Madrid, and progressed to the third round in Indian Wells.
The only tournament that the Australian had a deep run was in Austin, when she reached the quarter-finals. On Wednesday, the world No 88 struggled with the elements, losing her serve at a crucial point in that first set when she was down 3-5 before the suspension. The resumption on day 2 initially began with the Australian taking back control to equalise that first set to 5-all, before Basiletti played an offence game, recouping her lead and thereafter winning that first set 7-5, followed by the second set largely thanks to a dominant impressive serve game.
Basiletti's reward is a showdown with world No 10 and former two-time Rome champion Elina Svitolina. No doubt a daunting draw, but if Alizé Cornet once turned a wildcard into a fairytale in Rome, Basiletti must believe that she too can write her own.