Jasmine Paolini to Play Barbora Krejcikova in Wimbledon Ladies Final

Wimbledon will crown a new ladies’ champion for the eighth consecutive season.

French Open finalist Jasmine Paolini fought back from a break down in the final set out-dueling unseeded Donna Vekic 2-6, 6-4, 7-6(8) in an epic semifinal to surge into her second straight Grand Slam final at Wimbledon.

The seventh-seeded Paolini will play 2021 French Open singles and doubles champion Barbora Krejcikova in Saturday’s Wimbledon Ladies’ Final.

In today’s second semifinal, Krejcikova dropped the first four games of the match then fired up her game defeating 2022 Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, marking the first time in 20 years both ladies’ semifinals spanned three sets.

Krejcikova cried on court crediting her mentor and friend, 1998 Wimbledon winner Jana Novotna, who died of cancer on November 19, 2017 at the age of 49.

Surely, the spirit of Jana Novotna will be with the Czech when she plays Paolini on Saturday.

“I think [the final will be] a big fight, definitely a big fight,” Krejcikova said. “I know she is a huge fighter, she showed it today and same from me.

“I think we are both playing great tennis and I think it’s going to be a great match on Saturday.”

This remarkable run from Paolini is even more profound considering the 5’4” dynamo was winless on grass her entire career prior to this 2024 season.

“I love playing tennis,” Paolini said. “It’s amazing to be here playing in this stadium. It’s a dream. I was watching finals on television when I was a kid.”

Paolini prevailed in an extraordinary two hour, 51-minute match—the longest Wimbledon ladies’ semifinal in Open Era history—to hit her way into history.

“I’m feeling amazing,” Paolini said. “Today has been a really, really tough match. So emotional match. I’m just feeling so great.”

It’s a massive moment for Paolini, the first Italian woman in the Open Era to reach the Wimbledon final—and the first Italian in Open Era history to advance to Grand Slam finals at two different majors.

The perpetually-positive Paolini is the first woman to reach the Roland Garros final and Wimbledon semifinals in the same year since Serena Williams in 2016.

“She was hitting winners from everywhere… I’m so happy with this win, this match I will remember forever, I think,” Paolini told Rishi Persad in her on-court interview. “I was just trying to think what to do on the court. Point-by-point I was just repeating to myself try. Point-by-point it was really difficult, you know, but there is no place better than here to fight for every point, every ball.

“I really enjoy to play in front of you guys. For a tennis player, it is the best place to play a match like this. Thank you for cheering for me.”

Playing her fourth consecutive three-set match, including her fifth in six matches during this fortnight, Vekic commanded the first set and saved two match points in the third set to force the final tiebreaker.

The unseeded Vekic matched the French Open finalist stroke for stroke until Paolini pulled out the final three points completing a captivating comeback.

“It was tough, tough match,” a distraught Vekic said afterward. “I believe that I could win until the end. She played some amazing tennis and congrats to her—she definitely deserves it.

“I mean I thought I was gonna die in the third set. I had so much pain in my arm, in my leg so it was not easy out there but I will recover.”