For the seventh Wimbledon in a row, a first-time women's singles champion will be crowned on Centre Court on Saturday, thanks to a pair of captivating comeback successes from Jasmine Paolini and Barbora Krejcikova in Thursday's pulsating semi-finals.
Fresh from an emphatic triumph over Coco Gauff's conqueror Emma Navarro, French Open runner-up Paolini shared the court with Croatia's Donna Vekic for two hours and 51 minutes, the longest women's semi-final in the history of Wimbledon.
By the end of a nerve-jangling third-set tie-break, seventh seed Paolini completed a fabulous fightback to prevail 2-6 6-4 7-6[8] against her unseeded opponent, who was overcome by the wrong kind of emotion as Paolini let elation take over.
A tearful Vekic struggled to stem the waterworks at critical points in the match, but she still managed to save two of Paolini's match points to force a pivotal tie-breaker, where the Croatian earned the first mini-break for a 3-1 lead.
However, Paolini immediately made up the deficit and fashioned her third chance to rubber-stamp her place in the final at 9-8, after which Vekic whipped a forehand wide to make Paolini the first-ever Italian woman to make a Wimbledon singles final.
A late bloomer on the Grand Slam finals scene at 28 years old, Paolini had never even won a main-draw match at Wimbledon before laying down a serious marker on the SW19 grass this time around, although she benefitted from a whopping 57 unforced errors on Vekic's side.
BARBORA KREJCIKOVA IS A WIMBLEDON FINALIST 🇨🇿
— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) July 11, 2024
The Czech comes from a set down to beat 2022 champion Elena Rybakina 3-6, 6-3, 6-4#Wimbledon pic.twitter.com/Yo57VVuC4T
Former champion dethroned as Krejcikova emulates Paolini
Inspired by Paolini's exhilarating turnaround in the first semi-final of the day, 31st seed Krejcikova took a leaf out of the Italian's playbook during her contest with 2022 champion Elena Rybakina, regarded as the favourite of the semi-finalists to clinch the Venus Rosewater Dish again.
The fourth seed was on course to further her SW19 dreams in a dominant first set, but for the second time in a matter of hours, Centre Court witnessed a mesmerising fightback as Krejcikova triumphed 3-6 6-3 6-4 in two hours and seven minutes.
Nothing was coming off for the Czechwoman in the opening exchanges, as Rybakina stormed into a 4-0 lead and also brought up some early chances to break in the second set, albeit without taking any of them.
Having failed to capitalise on her openings, Rybakina was left stunned by Krejcikova's first break in the sixth game of the second set, and neither woman gave much away on serve in the nail-biting decider.
In fact, only one break point was fashioned in the entirety of the third set, but it crucially game the way of Krejcikova, who clinically converted to reach just her second Grand Slam singles final after winning the 2021 French Open.
However, the 31st seed is no total stranger to Wimbledon supremacy - winning the women's doubles in 2018 and 2022 - and Saturday's showdown will mark the first time in the Open Era where a women's Grand Slam final has been fought by two contenders who previously met in a major qualifier; Paolini and Krejcikova crossed paths in the 2018 Australian Open preliminary rounds.
Ben Knapton
