Wimbledon, the box of surprises. It is difficult, very difficult, to imagine in advance the final that Jasmine Paolini and Barbora Krejcikova will star in this Saturday. Not for lack of quality, the latter of them, an excellent player and champion of Roland Garros three years ago from there, the border of the quarterfinals in the majors and early falls, first and second rounds, is insurmountable. Nor because the Italian is a novelty in the lineup, given that a month ago she already participated in the outcome in Paris but, until then, secondary in a circuit that has already outlined a new hierarchy – Swiatek, Sabalenka, Gauff, and Rybakina clearly above the rest – and in which, even so, it continues without finding a firm governor in London.
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Since the start of the decline of Serena Williams, the last dominator, the last to repeat title (2015-2016), round and round has gone by. The wheel has turned and turned. For the seventh consecutive year, the great British player will register a new champion. The list of winners includes her, Garbine Muguruza (2017), Angelique Kerber (2018), Simona Halep (2019), Ashleigh Barty (2021), Elena Rybakina (2022) and Marketa Vondrousova (2023). It will now be Krejcikova or Paolini, more resilient in their respective semi-final duels. Both started against each other, both came back. The Italian recovered against Donna Vekic (2-6, 6-4, and 7-6(8) and the Czech straightened out against Rybakina (3-6, 6-3, and 6-4). Consequently, a highly unpredictable resolution.
Until recently, Paolini, 28, was a player with no great significance in the peloton, but she is going through a sweet moment that she has managed to transfer from clay to grass. “I am surprised by everything I am experiencing,” she admits, aware that no player of her nationality has ever managed to reach the top at the All-England Club. She will try to do so by means of this happy present that has allowed her to progress against the odds in London, a terrain of speed and hammers this is not her case, by any means. With her 1.63m height – the shortest in the top 100 – and the sparks she displays on the court, she is already one of the five tennis players who have managed to link the finals of Roland Garros and Wimbledon in the last 25 years, along with Graf, Serena, Venus, and Henin.
She is trying to follow in the footsteps of Errani, Vinci, Schiavone, and Penetta in her thirties. But, she says, she wants to forge her own path. “I want to write my own story, but I remember the finals they played [Penetta as the last Italian champion, at the 2015 US Open] it is good that the next generations have references,” she said in the conference room, after having beaten Vekic in a match that seemed to go one way and finally went the other way. The 28-year-old Croatian was unable to hold on emotionally in the final stretch of the match and even played the rally in tears.
Rybakina (world number four) was also aiming to beat Krejcikova, but the Kazakh, the champion two years ago, lost her momentum midway through the second set and the Czech – only four individual appearances in the SW19 district, but two titles as a doubles player (2018 and 2022) – is enjoying the meritorious step taken after a long period in the shadows. Torpedoed by injuries, her talent and that sliced backhand that does not admit many comparisons are vindicated. And, like Vekic, but for very different reasons, tears. There is the memory of Jana Novotna, winner in 1998 and mentor: “She was my inspiration and told me many stories about her experience here.”
