Final spot up for grabs in wide-open bottom half of Wimbledon women’s draw

Four women are left in the bottom half of the Wimbledon draw: Lulu Sun, Donna Vekic, Jasmine Paolini, and Emma Navarro.

One of those four will be in the final on Saturday afternoon.

What happened to every else? No. 2 seed Coco Gauff was upended by Navarro in an all-American matchup on Sunday. No. 3 seed Aryna Sabalenka withdrew prior to the tournament due to a shoulder injury. No. 8 seed Qinwen Zheng lost in the first round to Sun. No. 9 seed Maria Sakkari fell to Emma Raducanu, who then fell to Sun. No. 12 seed Madison Keys was forced to retire with a hamstring injury at 5-5 in the third set of her fourth-round match against Paolini.

Let’s meet the final four in the bottom half:

Lulu Sun – At 123rd in the rankings, Sun had to qualify…and was match point down in the second round!). Prior to 2024 she had won a total of four matches on the main tour. The 23-year-old New Zealander played one season of college tennis at Texas (2020-21) and won the clinching match in the national championship against Pepperdine.

Donna Vekic – A pro since 2012, Vekic has never reached a major semifinal (this is her third quarterfinal appearance; first at Wimbledon) and has not been higher than No. 19 in the world. The 28-year-old Croat has played in five WTA grass-court finals (one title, Nottingham 2017), so she has always been dangerous on this surface.

Jasmine Paolini – The seventh-ranked Italian was runner-up at Roland Garros and she also captured a WTA 1000 title in Dubai earlier in the 2024 campaign. Still, on grass this is very surprising run to the quarterfinals. The 28-year-old was 6-13 lifetime on grass prior to this season.

Emma Navarro – A former University of Virginia star, Navarro has also made a huge breakthrough this season–with a 40-15 match record that features the Hobart title. She is 14-5 all time on grass. Navarro’s Wimbledon run features includes of both Gauff (round of 16) and Naomi Osaka (round of 64).

On Tuesday it will be Vekic vs. Sun and Paolini vs. Navarro, and the stakes could not be higher in both matches. Only in the quarterfinals right now, we are already guaranteed to have a surprising Wimbledon finalist.

Ricky contributes to 10sballs.com and also maintains his own tennis website, The Grandstand. You can follow him on Twitter at @Dimonator.