Wimbledon Women’s Singles Semifinals Set Up Surprising Final Showdown
When 128 women set out to win this year’s Wimbledon singles title, pundits declared the draw to be ‘wide open’ but few predicted that we would see Jasmine Paolini take on Barbora Krejcikova to lift the Venus Rosewater Dish on Saturday, especially since 2022 champion Elena Rybakina had made it through to the semi-finals after the likes of favourites Iga Swiatek, Coco Gauff, Jessica Pegula and two-time finalist Ons Jabeur had all fallen by the wayside.
On Thursday, fans were treated to two of the closest-fought and thrilling semi-finals in the 137 years of The Championships that teetered on a knife-edge until the very last ball.
First up on a Centre Court, with the roof open and bathed in sunshine for what seemed like the first time this fortnight, was 7th-seeded Jasmine Paolini from Italy, who edged past Croatia’s Donna Vekic, 2-6 6-4 7-6[10-8], before Barbora Krejcikova, the No 31 seed from Czech Republic, upset World No 4 Elena Rybakina from Kazakhstan, 3-6 6-3 6-4.
What is remarkable is that Paolini and Krejcikova, who both have enjoyed career success on the clay courts of Roland Garros, pulled off wins against acknowledged grass court experts.
Paolini had never won a match on grass until this year, but such is her confidence after her run to the final in Paris a few weeks ago, that she has embraced the challenge to the point of looking like a veteran on the surface.
Krejcikova won the French Open in 2021, when she was ranked No 33, and has been in and out of the Top 10 since, hampered by illness and injury, and coming into Wimbledon with a 7-9 win-loss record in 2024.
The former World No 2 started this year just inside the Top 10, and made the Australian Open quarter-finals in January, but after a back injury in February took her off tour for 2 months, she suffered a 5-match losing streak on return, including a 0-4 record on clay.
In a sport dominated by tall players, Paolini is 5ft 4in and closing in on becoming the shortest champion in the Open Era, as well as the first Italian, and also the sunniest.
The joust between her and Vekic, turned into a classic battle as Paolini came from a break down, twice, in the final set before winning the tiebreak after almost 3 hours.
Vekic’s journey has been no less remarkable, as the unseeded Croatian nearly quit the tour in May to concentrate on her side-line as a luxury candle-maker, including one with a ‘champagne and strawberry’ fragrance, which is apparently ‘the scent of success’.
A 5-time grass court finalist, Vekic won Nottingham in 2017, but had to have knee surgery in 2021, and struggled to get both her fitness and level back until she met Pam Shriver, who has mentored her since.
Paolini and Vekic were both in uncharted territory, with the Croatian playing her first semi-final at a major and the Italian having never won a match on grass before this year.
Vekic dominated the first set, and much of the second as Paolini battled to gain a foothold, but eventually the Italian broke through and levelled the match at a set all, raising the curtain on an epic decider that proved to be nerve-wracking, even for neutral observers.
The unseeded Croatian led 3-1 in the third set, and broke again for 4-3, but Paolini pegged her back both times.
Vekic managed to find a service winner to stave off one match point down 5-4, but came out on the wrong end of a 5-deuce tussle in the subsequent game as Paolini held for 6-5.
On the final point of that game, Vekic used up her final Hawkeye challenge, and looked devastated as it showed her forehand had gone wide by inches, but she battled valiantly to the end, saving another match point down 6-5 by firing a forehand winner to end one of the best rallies of the day, and stayed committed to aggression off that wing throughout a tiebreak in which neither player was ever more than 2 points in front of the other.
Emotion got the better of Vekic, and she couldn’t hold back the tears, even before the match had ended, as Paolini found more ways to counter her pace of shot, and was quick to sense opportunity for herself.
In contrast, Paolini looked focused and energised at the end of the 2 hour, 51 minute thriller.
“These last months have been crazy for me,” said the 28-year-old, who lost the French Open final to Swiatek last month. “I am trying to focus on what I have to do on court, and I love playing tennis. It is amazing to be here and it is a dream. It was an intense match, and I tried to play my best, and now it’s time to recover. I need an ice bath as my legs are a little bit tired.”
Paolini has become more assured on the grass with every round, and, after she became the first Italian woman to reach the semi-finals, has now won again and could go on to make even more history on Saturday.
“She was playing unbelievable, she was hitting winners everywhere,” she added. “I was struggling at the beginning. I told myself to fight for every ball, and try to improve a little bit on the court, because I was serving really bad.”
Indeed, Vekic’s first-set dominance came down to her serve, with the World No 37 dropping just 3 points in total behind her delivery, while she was remorseless in punishing Paolini’s second serve.
Although the Italian won 11 out of 15 first-serve points, that dropped to just 5 out of 17 on her second delivery, and she unable to get on the front foot consistently in the opener, finding only 5 winners to Vekic’s 12.
The second set saw Paolini emerge with renewed intensity, and she began to read Vekic’s sneak drop-shot strategy, responding with pin-point lobs and brilliant volleys.
At 2-2, she fended off 2 break points with clutch serving, and the turning point came at 4-4, when Vekic slammed her overhead wide of the tramlines off a desperate defensive lob, prompting gasps from the crowd.
Paolini went on to hold, and seized her opportunity in the next game by upping her aggression on return.
Krejcikova was also in tears after beating Rybakina, but they were tears of joy.
“[There’s] a lot of joy, a lot emotions,” she said. “Also a lot of relief and I’m just super proud. I was down, I started 0-4, I was happy that I won the first game. I started to be in the zone and I didn’t want to leave the zone.”
Inspired by the memory of her mentor Jana Novotna, Krejcikova battled back to beat former champion Elena Rybakina and reach her first Wimbledon singles final after a 2 hour 7 minute contest.
Never having previously made it beyond the 4th round here, Krejcikova is definitely the surprise finalist and will now hope to follow in the footsteps of her…
