TENNIS – Seventh seed Jasmine Paolini became the first Italian woman to reach the Wimbledon final after defeating Croatian Donna Vekic 2-6, 6-4, 7-6(8) yesterday in the longest women’s semi-final at the All England Club.
Fans were treated to a roller-coaster encounter on Centre Court as both players exhausted themselves seeking a spot in the final tomorrow.
Paolini will face Barbora Krejcikova after the 2021 French Open champion beat Elena Rybakina 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 in the second semi-final.
The two 28-year-olds were in unchartered territory, with Vekic playing the first major semi-final of her career while Paolini had never even won a match on grass before this year.
The Croatian took the opening set comfortably having broken Paolini, a surprise finalist at the French Open last month, in the fifth game and then again in the seventh with her mixture of groundstrokes and dropshots proving too much for the Italian under a sunny sky.
However, Paolini, cheered on by a loud contingent of Italians in the crowd, became more aggressive in the second as she approached the net more and put Vekic on the backfoot. Her diligence and energy eventually paid off with a break to clinch the set.
The pair exchanged numerous breaks in the decider as both racked up the unforced errors, particularly Vekic who looked fatigued and emotional as the match wore on. She was in tears after saving Paolini’s first match point.
A successful challenge overturning a line call helped Paolini hold an almost 10-minute game that ended in Vekic sobbing in her chair at the changeover.
The Croatian rallied to save another match point and held serve to force a tiebreak but looked particularly laboured as she made 57 unforced errors in total and voiced her frustration to coach Pam Shriver in the players’ box.
Paolini, in contrast, looked just as energised as she did at the start. She prevailed and won the two hour, 51-minute epic, during which both players ran more than 3.5 kilometres, to reach her second successive Grand Slam final.
“These last months have been crazy for me. 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,” Paolini, who reached the semi-finals in Eastbourne last month, said on court.
The previous longest women’s semi-final at Wimbledon was two hours and 50 minutes between Serena Williams and Elena Dementieva in 2009.
Paolini had never even gone beyond the second round of a Grand Slam before this year. She reached the fourth round of the Australian Open in January before her runs to the final at the French Open and now Wimbledon.
Asked if she would have believed someone telling her last year that by this point she would be a two-time finalist, the Italian had a simple response.
“You are crazy, I would say, yes... I don’t have words. Just, yeah, you are crazy,” she told a Press conference while laughing.
However, it seems that her work with a new fitness coach since last year is paying off as she emulates fellow Italians such as 2010 French Open winner Francesca Schiavone, 2015 US Open champion Flavia Pennetta and former world number five Sara Errani by contesting the title match at a major.
Paolini, though, was intent on crafting her own chapter in the history books.
“Yeah, they are inspiring me so much. But I don’t want to compare too much because I’m writing my own story, my own career,” she said.
Krejcikova produced a comeback full of steel and resilience to reach her first Wimbledon final, showing unbendable resistance in the face of an attacking barrage from Rybakina yesterday.
There were times when Krejcikova resembled a punch-drunk boxer as she reeled from the relentless blows being inflicted by the 2022 champion, but she hauled herself off the ropes to turn the contest on its head and set up a showdown with Paolini in the final.
Rybakina had started the contest like a piece of reliable machinery, thrashing the ball to all corners of the court.
But Krejcikova would not be cowed and rummaged through her own box of tricks to find a way to turn defence into attack, eventually putting the Kazakh fourth seed on the back foot.
“I am so proud about my game and my fighting spirit today,” she said as she accepted the applause of the Centre Court crowd.
The 31st seed, whose sole Grand Slam triumph came at the French Open in 2021, had never gone past the fourth round at Wimbledon before and came into the tournament on the back of a season marred by injury and illness.
Nobody would have predicted her plotting a route through to the final but having reached her second Grand Slam showpiece, she will not be going down without a fight.
Kazakhstan’s Rybakina had threatened to run away with the contest in the first set, racing to a 5-1 lead with her brand of full-throttle high intensity tennis.
Yet after losing the opener, the 2021 French Open champion dug in and eventually fathomed the puzzle on the other side of the net, breaking in the sixth game of the second set before levelling the contest.
With the momentum having shifted in her favour, the Czech took control in the decider, breaking in the seventh game when Rybakina netted an attempted dropshot.
She brought up three match points with a smash at the net before kicking off the celebrations when Rybakina sent a backhand return long.
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