Jasmine Paolini staged a remarkable comeback against Donna Vekic in the Wimbledon women’s semifinal, overcoming setbacks like losing the first set and facing match points in the later sets. Throughout the match, Paolini kept reminding herself to take it one point at a time and fight for every ball.
Until last week, Paolini had never won a match at Wimbledon. Her thrilling 2-6, 6-4, 7-6 (10-8) victory over Vekic on Centre Court, lasting 2 hours and 51 minutes, now sets her up for her second consecutive Grand Slam final appearance. She will face Barbora Krejcikova, the No. 31 seed, for the championship title.
“This match,” said Paolini, seeded No. 7, “will stay with me forever.”
The semifinals drew in thousands of spectators and millions of TV viewers, with Paolini describing the experience as “a rollercoaster of emotions.”
In the other semifinal, 2021 French Open champion Krejcikova came from behind to defeat 2022 Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 in a match filled with its own dramatic turns.
The winner of Saturday’s final will become the eighth woman in the last eight Wimbledon editions to clinch the title.
“During the second set, around the middle, I started gaining momentum,” Krejcikova explained. “Once I broke her serve, I entered a zone and didn’t want to lose that focus.”
However, the match couldn’t match the intensity seen in Paolini versus Vekic.
Consider this: Vekic, in her first-ever Grand Slam semifinal, ended up winning more points (118-111), hitting more winners (42-26), and breaking serve more frequently (4-3).
“She was hitting winners all over the court,” Paolini acknowledged.
Despite this, Paolini never gave up, finally clinching victory on her third match point when Vekic missed a forehand wide. This triumph on Wimbledon’s grass courts follows Paolini’s runner-up finish to Iga Swiatek at the French Open just last month.
Paolini, a 28-year-old from Italy, becomes the first woman since Serena Williams in 2016 to reach the finals at both Roland Garros and Wimbledon in the same season.
“These past months have been quite wild for me,” Paolini remarked with a smile. Her victory was far from simple. It was downright exhausting.
Vekic visibly struggled, shedding tears between points and while seated during breaks in the third set due to pain in her arm and leg. She frequently looked towards her supporters with a flushed face and applied ice to her right forearm during breaks.
“I thought I wouldn’t make it through the third set,” admitted Vekic, who often closed her eyes, sighed heavily, or shook her head during the post-match interview.
“I didn’t know how,” she said, “I could keep going.” How surprising is Paolini’s recent rise?
Before January’s Australian Open, she had never made it past the second round in any major tournament, losing in the first or second round in all 16 of her previous appearances.
Furthermore, Paolini had never won a match at Wimbledon, going 0-3 until this year. She hadn’t even won a single match on grass at any tour-level event until a warm-up tournament in Eastbourne last month.
In contrast, Krejcikova from the Czech Republic, aged 28, has had a more established career. She’s been a Grand Slam champion, ranked as high as No. 2 in singles, and has won seven major titles in doubles. She now holds a 6-2 record against past Grand Slam champions at major tournaments.
Krejcikova spoke emotionally about her mentor, the late Jana Novotna, who won Wimbledon in 1998. She tears up when reflecting on Novotna’s influence and says she fights for every ball on the court in her honor.
Similar to Krejcikova, Paolini took some time to find her rhythm in their match. At 4-all in the second set, she displayed her determination by sprinting to return a lob with her back to the net, leading to a critical point that Vekic missed. Paolini went on to win the set, encouraged by her supporters in the stands, including her relatives and doubles partner, Sara Errani, whom she cheered on with a cry of “Forza!” (“Let’s go!”).
After losing the second set, Vekic took a break, regrouped, and started strong in the third set, breaking Paolini’s serve early with a powerful forehand return winner on a second serve, followed by Paolini’s missed forehand in a lengthy rally.
